tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43363419431162012252024-02-22T12:53:46.263-06:00The Road Trip YearsRoad tripping around the South learning about Jewish communities from Texas to Virginia, the Mason Dixon Line to the Gulf.
Past blog subjects: Semester abroad in Prague (Spring 2013) / Internship at the Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, MS (summer 2012) / Internship at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem (summer 2011) / Gap year in Israel as part of Mechinat Nachshon on Metzudat Yoav, Israel (2009-2010) Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-72261393290606232622014-10-01T00:19:00.002-05:002014-10-01T00:24:00.735-05:00Stella's Southern Soujourn* (and the North!)(If you look at nothing else from this post, search "Mississippi River" on this page and scroll down to those photos.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'll open with this beautiful sunset shot from my favorite place in Jackson. Its location is a secret divulged only to those who make the trek down here to visit! <span style="color: white;">(I'm looking at you, Anna Rubin!)</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A few weeks ago I received a very special letter from my 8-year-old cousin, Isabel. Her third grade class was beginning a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flat-Stanley-His-Original-Adventure/dp/0060097914">Flat Stanley/Flat Stella</a> project, and Isabel had sent me her Flat Stella to take around with me on my travels to help her and her classmates learn about other parts of the country. I got the letter right on time to bring Flat Stella with on my weekend visit to the Jewish community in Shreveport, Louisiana!</span><br />
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It turns out that B'nai Zion, the congregation I work with in Shreveport, livestreams all of its services so that those who are unable to attend are still able to be a part of a Shabbat (and other) service. That means that, unbeknownst to me at the time, my <a href="http://youtu.be/FmOmIeBbwsA?t=1h3m18s">d'var Torah ("sermon") was actually recorded</a>, and is now available on YouTube! Skip ahead to 1:03:18 to get to me (I speak for about 5 minutes).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The ISJL staff have a bit of an obsession with strawberry pie from <a href="http://strawnseatshop.com/?page_id=2">Strawn's Eat Shop</a>, and whenever someone passes through Shreveport they're supposed to bring back (at least) one for the office. Stella and I had no choice but to oblige!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">There's a beautiful, privately-funded "garden" (nature preserve? It's <a href="http://www.rwnaf.org/gardens">much bigger than a garden</a>...) at the <a href="http://www.rwnaf.org/">Norton Art Gallery</a> in Shreveport. There are succulents and flowers and sculptures and bushes, and a faint smell of Etrog that I couldn't shake (one day, cameras will capture smell. Wait, apparently there's <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/jun/28/scentography-camera-records-smells-memory">already one that can?</a>). It was amazing. I'll definitely be back at this garden on my next visit. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Obligatory "Welcome to Mississippi" photo with Stella.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">I happened to be crossing the Mississippi River at the Louisiana-Mississippi border right at sunset, so obviously I had to stop at the state welcome center. I stayed to watch the sun go all the way down, and then continued back to Jackson.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">When in the capital, one should see the Capitol! </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">With the State Seal at the Department of Transportation. I'd be prouder of this photo if the Department of Transportation were a bit, shall I say, better at its job. The potholes here are worse year-round than they are in Chicago after a bad storm; and although I've seen buses and people waiting at bus stops (often sitting on milk-crates, since many bus-stops don't have shelters or benches, despite the Mississippi sun), I've never actually seen a bus stop to pick up passengers at one of the aforementioned bus stops. Oh, and <a href="http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2013/may/15/ada-compliance-progress-slow-steady/">sidewalks are severely lacking</a> (the intersection referenced in that article is right near my house).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stella learned a little history on her visit, too--we made a stop to the placard marking the site of the Greyhound bus station where a busload of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/roster">Freedom Riders</a> attempted to integrate the station. Needless to say, they were jailed. (Actually, I wrote a term paper last spring about failure to enforce court-legislated integration in various arenas of public transportation)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">More State Seal</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">With the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#Confederate_flag">Confederate-inspired</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mississippi">flag of Mississippi</a>. (<a href="http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2014/09/29/shall-overcome-billboard-sends-mixed-messages/16428359/">Oh, jeez</a>.)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The art museum was closed, but the outside is still pretty cool, so it was worth a visit to show Stella.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of my favorite parts of showing Flat Stella around town was that I got to explore places I'd never been before, too! I hadn't even known where City Hall was, but because I was just wandering around downtown, we stumbled across it (and the statue of Andrew Jackson, for whom Jackson is named).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bieERQWPHzVfLrhz2PZ5W7AGWTDJ7ckID6Xnm2yM58mEeSdH5qxOBcGcK2HZxp0C9AmYFQms6inCKkPqAdWJ0typvh3ZuMaubnUuReHyIaB2xgOMwM30Eq3LREgMxeTA0Rg1_ZbUgG4/s1600/WP_20140922_18_41_11_Pro%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bieERQWPHzVfLrhz2PZ5W7AGWTDJ7ckID6Xnm2yM58mEeSdH5qxOBcGcK2HZxp0C9AmYFQms6inCKkPqAdWJ0typvh3ZuMaubnUuReHyIaB2xgOMwM30Eq3LREgMxeTA0Rg1_ZbUgG4/s1600/WP_20140922_18_41_11_Pro%5B1%5D.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The painted traffic/utility boxes downtown are one example of the <a href="http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2012/sep/19/paradox/">cool art stuff </a>that's <a href="http://www.citylab.com/design/2013/11/best-city-next-generation-artists-just-might-be-jackson/7495/">beginning to go on in Jackson</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDfeMU9KIRANZI9AlGtMdZbgfdzZLcYPg-4U8n0o48rfrEAKOqRBwr7OvdTt3vDEYYj6suShvNysqO5YHfCCRHAph8G5hXVh_9UsD1k0uup7LOfNOIW5sqdEQXIXGUVKoGBgwKyTIa5k/s1600/WP_20140922_18_44_17_Pro%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDfeMU9KIRANZI9AlGtMdZbgfdzZLcYPg-4U8n0o48rfrEAKOqRBwr7OvdTt3vDEYYj6suShvNysqO5YHfCCRHAph8G5hXVh_9UsD1k0uup7LOfNOIW5sqdEQXIXGUVKoGBgwKyTIa5k/s1600/WP_20140922_18_44_17_Pro%5B1%5D.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the Governor's Mansion</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPasD1JN0h9FL9Mufmp_V0-lRYQHvBUfJdbKHZPzn58efoAk3ygNAdQAYIteAMSZ22AbUyXxUTLbyr2V-pNNQEjfCYvuM01vbPWFq4Ds9FLpT0jrtY_zKfpoYOWkGvC9RY64Bb-W5NOB4/s1600/WP_20140922_18_52_12_Pro%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPasD1JN0h9FL9Mufmp_V0-lRYQHvBUfJdbKHZPzn58efoAk3ygNAdQAYIteAMSZ22AbUyXxUTLbyr2V-pNNQEjfCYvuM01vbPWFq4Ds9FLpT0jrtY_zKfpoYOWkGvC9RY64Bb-W5NOB4/s1600/WP_20140922_18_52_12_Pro%5B1%5D.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">I just liked this one :) Thought I was annoyed to find out that my new phone takes photos with a funky aspect ratio, and it's impossible to print this scaled to 4:6 without lopping off either Stella or the "I" at the end.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdKNvSPiE2fF0oeR9zKresOyfUbvw95jZFEmsNvePMquFbyqwc0p5f9hHxLSIBvjNdyggdb_Hld80S0x4clGPy66VEP2zReeXbsFUFSW9didQMV1958_XK9_mNxoiuEp2AtgsOB2x4uo/s1600/WP_20140926_17_34_44_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdKNvSPiE2fF0oeR9zKresOyfUbvw95jZFEmsNvePMquFbyqwc0p5f9hHxLSIBvjNdyggdb_Hld80S0x4clGPy66VEP2zReeXbsFUFSW9didQMV1958_XK9_mNxoiuEp2AtgsOB2x4uo/s1600/WP_20140926_17_34_44_Pro.jpg" height="359" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then I went home to Chicago for Rosh Hashanah and got to hand-deliver Stella (and printed photos of our adventures) to Isabel. It was great to be home: I went straight from the airport with all of my stuff to Wrigley to watch the Cubs beat the Cardinals in extra-innings at the second-to-last game in Wrigley before they <a href="http://wgntv.com/2014/09/29/wrigley-field-renovations-to-begin/">mess it up</a>; I got to spend time with two close friends I hadn't seen in a while; I went out for drinks with high school friends and our calculus teacher (highly recommended!); had a delicious and raucous birthday/Rosh Hashanah afternoon with my grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins (and librarian!); spent time at the Lake; and went to loud sing-a-long Hadar-y Rosh Hashanah services at Hillel. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh51ovhMeE-6ODajZBbCguVO6bEUJlpWFSpng8Yrh9GLsCJotJfxKtfx2ogpXfXroTEPsd0V0l04bx-HhPT83IjNWi4L5TxijDK3Lva3Le3yZ9xRAS7MAQ5R-0g8uJWjtin_Lg2ZrXEAx0/s1600/WP_20140923_17_25_26_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh51ovhMeE-6ODajZBbCguVO6bEUJlpWFSpng8Yrh9GLsCJotJfxKtfx2ogpXfXroTEPsd0V0l04bx-HhPT83IjNWi4L5TxijDK3Lva3Le3yZ9xRAS7MAQ5R-0g8uJWjtin_Lg2ZrXEAx0/s1600/WP_20140923_17_25_26_Pro.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">My transit route was kind of wacky: I drove to Memphis to fly to Chicago, since I'd racked up lots of miles on Southwest but they stopped flying to Jackson in June. It was a nice drive, though, and it meant that I was conscious of the geography of where I was flying--right over the Mississippi River, at sunset!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8g0i0Nv_1o7jLQyJhfoP97Mh2mD56Ie4tZCInoTSbB7au1gizkTNgU9-IjqjFDSjlwTQE-__SRLvpLnGdvRjXRlYzV1iOir29DOjXEr8xEUOb9gvYtQ0cpNqQb4xdKXwtxSJ83aKyN2Q/s1600/WP_20140928_10_17_23_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8g0i0Nv_1o7jLQyJhfoP97Mh2mD56Ie4tZCInoTSbB7au1gizkTNgU9-IjqjFDSjlwTQE-__SRLvpLnGdvRjXRlYzV1iOir29DOjXEr8xEUOb9gvYtQ0cpNqQb4xdKXwtxSJ83aKyN2Q/s1600/WP_20140928_10_17_23_Pro.jpg" height="640" width="358" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">And on the way back, same thing--flew right over the Mississippi River. Absolutely stunning to look at from above. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6J6XFdkejk-9kgWWWMmrssVQ3_vPVBS9fiRqSRU97j_dPt9C2o3VU9RE0B2SEJeaZfGdZH7ykcK7SAD1RqBUpWd5dg8kT68WEhzmPLfH7evUOxMP4PIWfMPvpsReuPJmpbLGx9mkHUCU/s1600/WP_20140928_12_33_46_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6J6XFdkejk-9kgWWWMmrssVQ3_vPVBS9fiRqSRU97j_dPt9C2o3VU9RE0B2SEJeaZfGdZH7ykcK7SAD1RqBUpWd5dg8kT68WEhzmPLfH7evUOxMP4PIWfMPvpsReuPJmpbLGx9mkHUCU/s1600/WP_20140928_12_33_46_Pro.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here's a closer shot of Mississippi River. Since I landed back in Memphis at 11am, I spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, which obviously included 2 hours walking along the river. About two weeks ago they finished putting in a "<a href="http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/news/grizzlies-energize-tom-lee-park-temporary-fitness-installations-140807">pop-up fitness park</a>," financed by the <a href="http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/news/grizzlies-energize-tom-lee-park-temporary-fitness-installations-140807">Memphis Grizzlies</a>, along the riverwalk. It's a really cool idea, and people were using all of the equipment as I walked by--it's just a little disappointing to learn that it's only temporary, because so far it seems pretty successful. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSAHJPD801gw_KUkPNs25er-cuzUWCCneRJp04KPfdYn67a5m5krkY4W6N1uSku9ZG0tRCC4gHbfvI_5s5xhlvqPIZwwKgZs34puj65o8OkRzbsLPRmNzVAsWyj231hxdV4XqY-hQzO3c/s1600/WP_20140928_17_23_55_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSAHJPD801gw_KUkPNs25er-cuzUWCCneRJp04KPfdYn67a5m5krkY4W6N1uSku9ZG0tRCC4gHbfvI_5s5xhlvqPIZwwKgZs34puj65o8OkRzbsLPRmNzVAsWyj231hxdV4XqY-hQzO3c/s1600/WP_20140928_17_23_55_Pro.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">After my river stroll, I headed to the <a href="http://civilrightsmuseum.org/">National Civil Rights Museum</a> at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was <a href="http://life.time.com/history/mlk-assassination-photos-from-memphis-tennessee-april-4-1968/#1">assassinated on April 4, 1968</a> (click that link. Seriously). The docent told me that "it's self-guided, but mostly people spend around 2 hours at the museum." Four hours later, I was scrambling to get through the last few rooms of the first of two buildings. It's an incredibly well-done museum--thorough, engaging, interactive--and I'd highly recommend it to anyone planning to be in Memphis.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeUioVt0-cwXkOuFiy-DPLl6neNiB5B7wf-YbPc4nX85ayOz4wvv86aPpSWFhnKQ1fSEsDZQKzox9wG_tTYob5dM8cQaZxpH7UwQMnguFudwAjYwQeMmkKeWPBUxGcF0OyIifhKASrKgc/s1600/WP_20140928_14_30_49_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeUioVt0-cwXkOuFiy-DPLl6neNiB5B7wf-YbPc4nX85ayOz4wvv86aPpSWFhnKQ1fSEsDZQKzox9wG_tTYob5dM8cQaZxpH7UwQMnguFudwAjYwQeMmkKeWPBUxGcF0OyIifhKASrKgc/s1600/WP_20140928_14_30_49_Pro.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">I mentioned earlier the term paper I wrote about legislation to desegregation public transportation--that was for a seminar on the <a href="http://registrar.princeton.edu/course-offerings/course_details.xml?courseid=008483&term=1142">Civil Rights Movement</a> I took with Prof. Joshua Guild (the books from that course are among the ones shredded/recycled by the USPS). In any case, one of the things I remember most prominently from the class was the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkpUyB2xgTM">Doll Test</a> that helped convince the Supreme Court in its <a href="http://www.naacpldf.org/brown-at-60-the-doll-test"><i>Brown v. Board</i> decision</a> in 1954. These are the dolls that were used in some of Kenneth and Mamie Clark's experiments.</span></td></tr>
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And now I'm in town for half a second before heading to New Orleans for Yom Kippur and Williamsburg (VA) for Sukkot and Hot Springs (AR) for post-Simchat Torah hiking!<br />
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*Shoutout to Beth Kander for putting up a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheISJL/photos/a.10150145112064900.294170.8316189899/10152517996979900/?type=1">Stella post</a> on the ISJL's Facebook page!Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-3631374181197556352014-09-07T22:21:00.001-05:002014-09-08T12:57:17.423-05:00This Really Should Be Two Posts, or From Texas to Virginia, and Back AgainAt the ISJL, we like to boast that the 13-state region we define as "the South" extends all the way from Virginia to Texas. I'm fortunate that the communities I'm working with this year represent the full range, and my most recent set of visits had me traveling from one to the other in a giant mega-trip. On August 12 I woke up at 4:30am to make a 6 o'clock flight to DC; from there, we rented a car and traversed the state of Virginia, making stops as far west as Blacksburg (practically in West Virginia) and ending up back east in Williamsburg (practically in the bay). After a day in DC (more details later), I flew directly to San Antonio, stayed there for a couple days, then drove to Houston and flew back to Jackson from there a couple days later.<br />
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But let's back up (I think I've started most of my Jackson posts this way; that's what happens when the frequency of posts don't keep up with the frequency of events).<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbsuwpZWf2RA1x3D-YqoHj8GDRRBVSe6Vi-eMVhYBapnMn1nJcVgWWArXp-WgRkfi3ZoUoR5Wbcae9DLkGlMCMAId9MKNLkpv2X1WmH0fwEM2AiE2RNSd_Lo0MHCOn66FqR4m2vwm9j8M/s1600/2014-08-07_10-26-58_321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbsuwpZWf2RA1x3D-YqoHj8GDRRBVSe6Vi-eMVhYBapnMn1nJcVgWWArXp-WgRkfi3ZoUoR5Wbcae9DLkGlMCMAId9MKNLkpv2X1WmH0fwEM2AiE2RNSd_Lo0MHCOn66FqR4m2vwm9j8M/s1600/2014-08-07_10-26-58_321.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">August kicked off with a visit to the community I work with in Shreveport, Louisiana, where I met with all of the teachers at the religious school and led a text study I'd prepared for the occasion. It was a quick visit--just one night--and from there we* headed over the Texas state line (at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethany,_Louisiana_and_Texas">Bethany, LA/TX</a>--the town straddles the states, apparently) and kept driving and driving and driving until we got to Galveston, TX, which is actually an island.<br />*On these summer visits, I was always traveling with at least one coworker. Instead of confusing you by introducing lots of names, I'll just stick to the general "we."</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFPMq6BwunktT2oGRZ5CH571M1fsFD0oSZp_-v-MC0QX9HU7gDHQ7vMols9jL2p2kZYJMnCiW7gy-ci_Ak38x4AZeWE6NROX32UAyyJo1TBIZma-08GNZwLhnI8oK9Y-_Z9Hu2oUOlhT8/s1600/2014-08-08_12-56-14_851.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFPMq6BwunktT2oGRZ5CH571M1fsFD0oSZp_-v-MC0QX9HU7gDHQ7vMols9jL2p2kZYJMnCiW7gy-ci_Ak38x4AZeWE6NROX32UAyyJo1TBIZma-08GNZwLhnI8oK9Y-_Z9Hu2oUOlhT8/s1600/2014-08-08_12-56-14_851.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">We had a day of free time in Galveston, so we hit the town touring. Galveston is an old port city, dating from the early-ish 1800s (it was the capital of the Republic of Texas! Remember that that existed?), and I'd been hoping to make it to Galveston ever since I learned about it while interning at the ISJL in 2012 (more on this later.)<br />One of the places we visited was Bishop's Palace, an old Victorian house. Initially a private home, the Diocese purchased the building in the 1920s (it's across the street from a beautiful, all-white Catholic church, the columns of which frame the photo you're looking at). Bishop's Palace was one of the few buildings to survive the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which to this day remains the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7SEbWJkwCejLPPlLDsYyIwdUB89ae-jfOdG1vKxe5GqYZ9kjY7s3RCId7UG-MCuao6btQh5J7fN2sHBSr1PUHunl-ucZ-SKw4U50xgl0M1W_9DR6omQCyt9Xcze8kBg0Qjs9_pAwKoGM/s1600/2014-08-08_16-33-27_31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7SEbWJkwCejLPPlLDsYyIwdUB89ae-jfOdG1vKxe5GqYZ9kjY7s3RCId7UG-MCuao6btQh5J7fN2sHBSr1PUHunl-ucZ-SKw4U50xgl0M1W_9DR6omQCyt9Xcze8kBg0Qjs9_pAwKoGM/s1600/2014-08-08_16-33-27_31.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">The hotel we were staying in was right on the beach, so to keep up my streak of going to <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-first-road-trip.html">beaches on workdays</a>, I made sure to take a nice, long walk on the sand (and to take a couple dips when it got too hot, which happened frequently.) </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-wwuStKDeCJXb1EeuE9XLtJOJJSCo_xG6FPkz-yTOc_q8ertqrQkbwLwi67qg94HHD6fRCuxptOX_vU_68gol2tMd596q5tE-QpOUbAeXBbISgEfNu5X7cQP3xsW-ElmS8mQ0j0DS0Gk/s1600/2014-08-10_16-39-38_822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-wwuStKDeCJXb1EeuE9XLtJOJJSCo_xG6FPkz-yTOc_q8ertqrQkbwLwi67qg94HHD6fRCuxptOX_vU_68gol2tMd596q5tE-QpOUbAeXBbISgEfNu5X7cQP3xsW-ElmS8mQ0j0DS0Gk/s1600/2014-08-10_16-39-38_822.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">Back in Jackson. I took a detour home one day and passed a sign for a farmers' market I'd never even heard about before. The farmers' market I knew about is only open twice a week, at inconvenient times; this one is opened 7 days a week until 6pm. Now I go there a couple times a week, and the vendors recognize me and have been supplying my taste-buds with new fruits I'd never heard of before: I've now tried <a href="http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/gardens/southern-plant-muscadines">muscadines</a> (kind of like concord grapes, but the size of cherry tomatoes) and <a href="http://hamptonroads.com/2008/07/mother-all-vines-gives-birth-new-wine">scuppernongs</a>* (kind of like muscadines, but sweeter), and I've also tried boiled peanuts which are just as slimy as they sound.<br />*Spelling that word felt very much like the "creative spelling" I was encouraged to do in kindergarten. The sound I heard come out of the vendor's mouth was more like "scupanon," but Google told me that was definitely wrong.</span> </td></tr>
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Here's where the whirlwind MS->VA->TX->MS tour begins:<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTPsxAfs5rKgFUm6t_mNn-dGp5rJMRsUjTYRwqwXSX0OCZgWz-EOmfX5SKz5GQxEInO0aDq1QfuKJv5m9riY05yHpk9JcYMwhyCkhq_YOVfhhLfgvGKrE3Hip33frECzNHXxlWDrcpnM/s1600/2014-08-13_15-40-35_710.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTPsxAfs5rKgFUm6t_mNn-dGp5rJMRsUjTYRwqwXSX0OCZgWz-EOmfX5SKz5GQxEInO0aDq1QfuKJv5m9riY05yHpk9JcYMwhyCkhq_YOVfhhLfgvGKrE3Hip33frECzNHXxlWDrcpnM/s1600/2014-08-13_15-40-35_710.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lynchburg is one of two communities in Virginia that I work with. I'm pretty sure your first reaction to that sentence was "Lynchburg? What an awful name for a town!" There is, of course, a story. The town of Lynchburg, I learned, is name for its founder John Lynch (not to be confused with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Lynch">John R. Lynch </a>, the first black person elected as Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, in 1873). The <b>Lynchburg</b> John Lynch established the town as a center of commerce; legend has it that his brother, Charles Lynch, is responsible for the word "lynch" as it is defined today.<br />As soon as we rolled over the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains I remembered why I'd heard of Lynchburg before: Lynchburg was the home of none other than <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/obituaries/16falwell.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">Jerry Falwell</a>, who I'd never heard of before I took a fantastic class with Julian Zelizer and Kevin Kruse junior year (people still at Princeton: take HIS 361!) and learned all I ever wanted to know (and more) about Falwell. Falwell was the founder of the Moral Majority movement, which effectively brought about the rise of the religious right's involvement in politics. There's a lot more I could say about him, but I'd rather not. The only other thing I'll add is that Lynchburg is also home to Liberty University, the college he founded that espouses the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/being-gay-at-jerry-falwells-university/274578/">very conservative</a>, very evangelical Christianity he preached. I was told by someone I met that "half the town is Liberty, and the other half is liberal." Interesting contrast in that statement alone. <br />I'll just close with this assessment: Lynchburg is one of the most beautiful towns I've ever been in. It's surrounded by mountains on all sides (we've already decided that my spring visit to the community will include a hiking trip!), and the main drag in town is dotted with a bunch of "play me" pianos <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-final-post-munich-and-salzburg-cue.html">like the ones I saw in Munich last year</a> which, obviously, I played.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">The way my flight plans worked out, I had a whole day to spend in DC. Turns out, so did my Grandma! We had a lovely family reunion with the Halper side of the family.</span> <span style="color: white;">(Thanks to the Meyer sisters for the shirt! #whitetext)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidbMUB8RV7qaUiI6oC8WHy8Bh3Xj3QQaETtX-wIu0d5B0YswM0NCqioZcs0mRkMyxIFLTWaHmS-3x6LPzd_su8EqxoZSmzDvcE3r9sKERPKeLHzJLE6yOnp4PyaYK6RBwhNh_aEl9RVRw/s1600/2014-08-15_13-41-46_390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidbMUB8RV7qaUiI6oC8WHy8Bh3Xj3QQaETtX-wIu0d5B0YswM0NCqioZcs0mRkMyxIFLTWaHmS-3x6LPzd_su8EqxoZSmzDvcE3r9sKERPKeLHzJLE6yOnp4PyaYK6RBwhNh_aEl9RVRw/s1600/2014-08-15_13-41-46_390.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the morning of my free day, I paid a visit to <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.com/2014/06/moving-to-jackson-ms.html">Henry Morgenthau III</a>, a member of Princeton's class of 1939 and the second-oldest alumnus I interviewed for my thesis. Henry told me about a "new friend" of his and then inscribed his family memoirs to me as his "good young friend." As I've written elsewhere, May we all continue to make new friends well into our 10th decade!</span> </td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZGWgMOahO-c0S8EK5AyRjBxgGRPugO5UTBKbXrmvQwrf5-JYKPNDunclCVO-IuNjikq1TyOpG03TwO8JA93NBmsEIvKcRJvqOIth92-msweRaydtoNLm1KFXD3Jk9aeCrZ-sD-ss_Vs/s1600/2014-08-15_16-59-55_269.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZGWgMOahO-c0S8EK5AyRjBxgGRPugO5UTBKbXrmvQwrf5-JYKPNDunclCVO-IuNjikq1TyOpG03TwO8JA93NBmsEIvKcRJvqOIth92-msweRaydtoNLm1KFXD3Jk9aeCrZ-sD-ss_Vs/s1600/2014-08-15_16-59-55_269.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">After a long day of exploring the Smithsonians and strolling along the Mall, we headed to Julie's for Shabbat and had a big Shabbat dinner at a friend's house. It was so great to be able to swing a visit with a friend off a work visit!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsLPs6lPzDKoh4eJaCzC9OEeL9_dLFItvOANM9IrXRsKOGsXoJYmPukCplhvPzzbf2A2YgOOWuuUPwtbWypP6iGKH-s6C5-zz0RVJ3_W7TFGrJi41IRPIoAdta62KEpLja0pi93f0F-c/s1600/2014-08-17_07-48-59_568.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsLPs6lPzDKoh4eJaCzC9OEeL9_dLFItvOANM9IrXRsKOGsXoJYmPukCplhvPzzbf2A2YgOOWuuUPwtbWypP6iGKH-s6C5-zz0RVJ3_W7TFGrJi41IRPIoAdta62KEpLja0pi93f0F-c/s1600/2014-08-17_07-48-59_568.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">I headed straight from DC to San Antonio, one of two Texas communities I'm working with this year. I was staying about 3 minutes from <a href="http://www.sanaturalareas.org/ep/epindex.html">Dwight D. Eisenhower Park</a>, where I went hiking both mornings and saw these purple cacti.<br />Sometime on the previous Texas trip (the one mentioned at the top of this post), my phone began behaving strangely; the screen would flash and peter out, and often looked the way TVs used to when the reception was bad. Fortunately, I thought ahead and borrow a friend's old flip-phone, so I was prepared when mine died completely in San Antonio and was able to temporarily transfer my number to the flip-phone. I am now the proud (?) owner of a Windows Phone on a <a href="https://www.cricketwireless.com/">Cricket</a> plan. We'll see how that goes.</span><br />
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I pride myself on my Jewish Geography abilities (for the unfamiliar, Jewish Geography is basically an attempt to figure out which people you know in common when you meet someone new. These days, Facebook does it for you). My trip to San Antonio brought a huge success, involving my thesis, the ISJL, and the Galveston Project that I'd learned about when I interned here, which brought Jewish immigrants through the port at Galveston (rather than Ellis Island) between 1907-1914. I won't go into all the details here, since I wrote <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/blog/southern-and-jewish/2014/09/05/its-a-small-jewish-world-after-all/">an entire post about it on the ISJL's blog, "Southern and Jewish"</a> and you can read it there, but I'll include a snippet:<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">Long story short, if it weren’t for Macy’s great-grandfather, Henry Cohen might not have moved to Galveston, there might not have been a Galveston Project, Ruth Cohen and Ephraim Frisch might not have gotten married, there would have been no David Frisch, and thus no one to lead Shabbat services at Princeton in the late 1930s.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I should probably just get the ISJL logo emblazoned on my thesis now…"</span></blockquote>
After a short detour to Houston (where I'd actually been a week-and-a-half earlier on the drive back from Galveston), I flew back to Jackson just in time for... my friend Thomas to visit! It was great to have some downtime with a good friend after more than a week on the road.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZA0bAOVhjcRA3zlOFb4D5zUg4D4lOlX5gPY_15wD8oY0cjBWx1XAROHHLc6I8nbiMLXSEOLX3JikmQe-GmAXE6-_gbWMMKVGlLLKRxfL67U4z4RFQaCPsMJ64qj2H3L4-Z9uUwklgiE/s1600/WP_20140829_18_45_24_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZA0bAOVhjcRA3zlOFb4D5zUg4D4lOlX5gPY_15wD8oY0cjBWx1XAROHHLc6I8nbiMLXSEOLX3JikmQe-GmAXE6-_gbWMMKVGlLLKRxfL67U4z4RFQaCPsMJ64qj2H3L4-Z9uUwklgiE/s1600/WP_20140829_18_45_24_Pro.jpg" height="400" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">I finally made it to Jackson's monthly group bike ride a couple weeks ago. There were about 15 riders total, and a wide range of ages represented, though I was definitely the youngest (upon hearing that I'd just finished my undergrad, one guy laughed--literally--and said, "No way! You must be a child prodigy, how old are you!?" And when I said "I'll be 23 next month," he laughed again.)</span> </td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg29qsfrh4RusYJ4VWGlOuOnN_BFFS6d0hgldzlIOC46pU5nhur1rb5pknUrMql8F0wnxpPt675FhQesQk-wt3CPPvmRqukaOc85o4OpyShLb83WxmrUpkKsYl9xhCxXQ5Xz_sKZBmbh4Q/s1600/WP_20140904_19_00_30_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg29qsfrh4RusYJ4VWGlOuOnN_BFFS6d0hgldzlIOC46pU5nhur1rb5pknUrMql8F0wnxpPt675FhQesQk-wt3CPPvmRqukaOc85o4OpyShLb83WxmrUpkKsYl9xhCxXQ5Xz_sKZBmbh4Q/s1600/WP_20140904_19_00_30_Pro.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">I missed last month's Fondren After 5 (FA5 is my neighborhood's monthly "Late Thursdays"), so I was glad to be in town for this month's. The weather was cooler than in June, there seemed to be more musicians and artists out, and in general it was nice to walk around having been here for a couple months already. Next time I'm going to bring a book and park myself at one of the "stages" and just enjoy the music. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNZ8RlC3vvRwgVW7U_e9_vL3w1LHmPAcY0PicXeAPIggaxdaAvjl_zwc7f7C5nHFB6eSm0ZJIoiR0ECj1slbjwOQTC-fl2M0m3moFJpizpsPPl4NNpyjbiq8D-DGhXJS1JRnqG9pH8w8/s1600/WP_20140904_19_21_47_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNZ8RlC3vvRwgVW7U_e9_vL3w1LHmPAcY0PicXeAPIggaxdaAvjl_zwc7f7C5nHFB6eSm0ZJIoiR0ECj1slbjwOQTC-fl2M0m3moFJpizpsPPl4NNpyjbiq8D-DGhXJS1JRnqG9pH8w8/s1600/WP_20140904_19_21_47_Pro.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">This was the sky we got to enjoy while walking around at FA5. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">This too.</span></td></tr>
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For those who have been following the Lost Box Saga intently and have been perched on the edge of their seats waiting for the next installment, I'm sorry to inform you that it's over (and not because I have my books). As some of you know, I managed (after much difficulty) to get in contact with the Customer Relations Manager at Atlanta's Dead Letter Center (actually, the Mail Recovery Center, MRC), where my <span style="font-family: inherit;">books were supposedly sent. After much back-and-forth, I was told that my books were considered "<span style="background-color: white;">used book[s] with no value</span><span style="background-color: white;"> and [they] would be recycled"--which was <b>worse</b> than my worst fear, that they'd merely be auctioned off. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8rYkgd1ftbGOrCc51LojgRRhlDejRiI8SJ1aTbOn9c2iMSfrFtzoRDOJaoRJ7At2buuqY950HqEY1uRDKohmR8KO5vULiRTY2J98ww2IRe9JKmA8OFFkNwwjlo0lDoTotv82ZUDm9XgA/s1600/USPS.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8rYkgd1ftbGOrCc51LojgRRhlDejRiI8SJ1aTbOn9c2iMSfrFtzoRDOJaoRJ7At2buuqY950HqEY1uRDKohmR8KO5vULiRTY2J98ww2IRe9JKmA8OFFkNwwjlo0lDoTotv82ZUDm9XgA/s1600/USPS.JPG" height="329" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">I should clarify that the reason my books have "no value"--and are thus assigned to the recycle pile not the auction pile--is because they were not signed by the author and are not "unique." Which means that all three of the copies of </span><i style="text-align: start;">The Coming Economic Armageddon </i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">by David Jeremiah, </span><a href="http://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=8319&acctid=4703" style="text-align: start;">pictured at the top of this pile of books up for auction</a><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">, must be signed by the author, right? Or something.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">But let's go back to a second to the fact that the MRC </span><b>recycles books! </b><span style="background-color: white;">Rather than, I don't know, donating them to chronically underfunded public schools? </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">[Since sending an email suggesting as much more than a week ago, I've received no word from the MRC rep with whom I was in contact; to be fair, she was fairly decent at responding to the two other emails I sent.] </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The Georgia public school system itself is 40th in the nation when it comes to per-student funding, and this year the system is underfunded by about $747 million. But that's fine, just "recycle" the books instead of donating them. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">I guess I'll just have to start rebuilding my book collection. Suggestions welcome! </span></div>
Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-17858987834749792412014-07-28T00:23:00.000-05:002014-07-28T18:51:28.769-05:00The First Road Trip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In the time since the last post I've done quite a bit of driving and seen lots of very cool things, both in Mississippi and elsewhere.<br />
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A quick arithmetic briefing before I get into details:<br />
American Military Bases Count: nonzero<br />
Sate Count: +1 (current total: 38, though maybe up to 40.)<br />
State Capitals Count: +1 (current total: 15, plus maybe one or two more?)<br />
Synagogue Count: +3 (current total: I have no idea. Probably >100)<br />
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The first few pictures are pre-trip:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSoLpvLwOLy7KLj7XC0R4nEas0XqRyFUfxhsvX6ntPKPfhraa8xdCOAUu1KzmmFpQ9MH124Thc7rpTZmxo2LqWvQy-lPaTKytU633f8uj8WHsGAro77ItI7RiKIcE4yLuvO-GvX-iK4AU/s1600/2014-07-12_14-50-29_23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSoLpvLwOLy7KLj7XC0R4nEas0XqRyFUfxhsvX6ntPKPfhraa8xdCOAUu1KzmmFpQ9MH124Thc7rpTZmxo2LqWvQy-lPaTKytU633f8uj8WHsGAro77ItI7RiKIcE4yLuvO-GvX-iK4AU/s1600/2014-07-12_14-50-29_23.jpg" height="400" width="178" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Last weekend there was a neighborhood picnic in the park around the corner from my house, the park where the community garden is. Pretty much the only foods there that were vegetarian-friendly were the desserts, which was fine by me. Apple pie, brownies, cookies, raspberry tortes, watermelon...yum! Then I stayed at the park for a while reading <i>In the Time of the Butterflies</i> (Julia Alvarez) in my hammock. I'd seen the movie in Spanish class in high school, but missed most of it because we weren't allowed to have the subtitles on. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">I went back for more figs, I couldn't help it! They're so deliciously sweet.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiXIxi8g8XZCGzQxDaSQZDf_jsEq1HY-WtXrvd6V2YUB5Cuje7FcN1faJ44m1C13z2nxyb1sqDEfYtHUt_ZtvVHfp28tbgOwS3SaL3HcdBReMJi_II22Lyzmnp-vHBXAekbM3TKR434RE/s1600/screenshot+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiXIxi8g8XZCGzQxDaSQZDf_jsEq1HY-WtXrvd6V2YUB5Cuje7FcN1faJ44m1C13z2nxyb1sqDEfYtHUt_ZtvVHfp28tbgOwS3SaL3HcdBReMJi_II22Lyzmnp-vHBXAekbM3TKR434RE/s1600/screenshot+2.JPG" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The art museum has a hexagonal display of hexagonal mirrors at slightly different angles such that the above effect is achieved. Pretty cool.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ43Ec6k_-kBkbSPqB0o3Ki0XaDfGdM7JE-H5WXcTsNvu5o01VHTMJcTdcNZ9-bU-QpcglMudw-3D8rEfAYf8XVQLDx153tHMaXs6jbIteba-Xt2_O7AhaADpOq878KgSwWBrPo1xk-7o/s1600/DSC_9462.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ43Ec6k_-kBkbSPqB0o3Ki0XaDfGdM7JE-H5WXcTsNvu5o01VHTMJcTdcNZ9-bU-QpcglMudw-3D8rEfAYf8XVQLDx153tHMaXs6jbIteba-Xt2_O7AhaADpOq878KgSwWBrPo1xk-7o/s1600/DSC_9462.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The <a href="http://www.nps.gov/natt/index.htm">Natchez Trace</a> runs from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN (440 miles), including a stretch through Jackson. The trace consists both of a parkway and of a walking/biking trail, and a couple weeks ago I decided to check it out, as it's the closest thing to hiking in this part of the state. (Actually, in most of the state: Woodall "Mountain" in <a href="http://www.mdwfp.com/parks-destinations/ms-state-parks/tishomingo.aspx">Tishomingo State Park</a>--in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains--is the highest point in Mississippi and is a whopping 807 feet. But it's so far north it's practically Tennessee).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I think it could be really cool to bike the entirety of the Trace when I finish my two years here.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">When I saw the sun setting I realized I should probably head back to the car, but I stayed to watch just a bit longer. One thing I've noticed in Mississippi is that there's so much sky here! There aren't really any <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson,_Mississippi#Tallest_buildings">tall buildings</a> (the tallest in the state is 348 feet and it's in Biloxi; the tallest in Jackson is 318 feet, and it's the only one over 300 feet), so there's nothing really to break up views of long stretches of the sky.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sunset at the Trace.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">More from the Trace</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZThpSGoSpRGmclSaw3NOgOxF-p_wTaKZqHCDaCqmc_lvZtcYzwK8hKtfF0d2o2hD_O1cvsOqyCZMMnIzDS77Q1mYVSnTRzhPFw024ssn8k5cRJqydYAoow52SG_YlYih1AUGByp3Y290/s1600/DSC_9557.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZThpSGoSpRGmclSaw3NOgOxF-p_wTaKZqHCDaCqmc_lvZtcYzwK8hKtfF0d2o2hD_O1cvsOqyCZMMnIzDS77Q1mYVSnTRzhPFw024ssn8k5cRJqydYAoow52SG_YlYih1AUGByp3Y290/s1600/DSC_9557.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">On my drive back from the Trace I pulled into a parking lot to watch the end of sunset because it was just as beautiful there.</span></td></tr>
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On Tuesday morning of this past week, two of my coworkers picked me up in our rental car so we could hit the road for our first community visit road trip of the summer. Summer visits are designed to take advantage of geography, so the three of us went together to hit the northeastern part of the Florida panhandle and southwestern Alabama in Dothan (my community).
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">We looked at our driving route and saw that I-98 bumped right up against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Soto_National_Forest">De Soto National Forest</a> and decided that would be a nice lunch spot on our way out of Mississippi. Only when we drove into the park and followed what looked like a sign for a trailhead, it turned out that somehow we'd entered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Shelby">Camp Shelby</a>, a joint-forces military training camp in use since World War I. Oops. We're not sure why the Arabic (?) is there--maybe to help the soldiers acclimate to what they'll see when they're deployed?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is who we were sharing the road with. Nobody told us to leave, and nobody asked us what we were doing there.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">We left Camp Shelby and soon enough passed a sign for <a href="https://www.mdwfp.com/media/131719/lake_perry.pdf">Lake Perry</a>, where we (finally) ate our picnic lunches.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1T15UVkbNR-qjoyfBSBRYWOyijPE4BtnIa6jLdJlFQHiah_RrlhEV9M_dXGZMI2aVIRyQ0kqyWTCJWnQkl7-ppS_vUzV0CpZpN1WD1ChD2vOnatTxdHoQ3w1SHGEqn-lK_RaB5SAlnnk/s1600/DSC_9591.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1T15UVkbNR-qjoyfBSBRYWOyijPE4BtnIa6jLdJlFQHiah_RrlhEV9M_dXGZMI2aVIRyQ0kqyWTCJWnQkl7-ppS_vUzV0CpZpN1WD1ChD2vOnatTxdHoQ3w1SHGEqn-lK_RaB5SAlnnk/s1600/DSC_9591.JPG" height="400" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the stained glass windows in the chapel of <a href="http://dothansynagogue.org/">Temple Emanu-El</a> in <a href="http://www.isjl.org/alabama-dothan-encyclopedia.html">Dothan, AL</a>, one of the communities I'll be working in this year. Dothan is actually one of the few small-town Jewish communities the ISJL works with that I'd heard of before taking this job because last year it made the the pages of the<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/us/an-alabama-synagogue-once-struggling-for-congregants-stretches-out-its-hand.html?_r=0"> New York Times</a> with a story about a "<a href="http://www.bfjcs.org/">Family Relocation Project</a>" that aimed to bring 20 Jewish families to the congregation/community by 2016, and in exchanged offered $50,000 to each family.<br />Funny and irrelevant side note: The website http://dothantemple.org/, which I thought was the synagogue's website, is in Japanese.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZHiu7Q2RESnFUvrWvB7FtDIraSmPxqYGmfRuJsKm7XU56kWtna4wQvv87_p5TRMDnBmjLBzw5UQAlye2UmjAE1IkSZDVleuNawNwtciOIZlq4UHStRtmt9YFEfYRkFPMP4dTUaSAjCMM/s1600/2014-07-24_10-40-06_319.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZHiu7Q2RESnFUvrWvB7FtDIraSmPxqYGmfRuJsKm7XU56kWtna4wQvv87_p5TRMDnBmjLBzw5UQAlye2UmjAE1IkSZDVleuNawNwtciOIZlq4UHStRtmt9YFEfYRkFPMP4dTUaSAjCMM/s1600/2014-07-24_10-40-06_319.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Florida's capitol in Tallahassee! Actually, the building in the front (with the ridiculous candycane awnings) is the Old State Capitol. The tall building in the back is where state proceedings actually happen now. At our pizza parlor meeting with members of the congregation we met a Tallahassee newbie and history buff who offered to take us to see the Old Capitol Museum and the state history museum the next day, which we happily took advantage of.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-kTcvNhFW-4fIBEBoyC-n5CdER3r4NDTxyQTZcKgcuwCU_5EVybd1k39CcvQL9q4kzCdjO6dnMbLSDEXWS6KHmKMpXpE7JdKJdGmHkjjq7j06Y8P9B4fc6_Sk4OeRF0CKwm3Xg7uKsz4/s1600/2014-07-24_11-48-41_53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-kTcvNhFW-4fIBEBoyC-n5CdER3r4NDTxyQTZcKgcuwCU_5EVybd1k39CcvQL9q4kzCdjO6dnMbLSDEXWS6KHmKMpXpE7JdKJdGmHkjjq7j06Y8P9B4fc6_Sk4OeRF0CKwm3Xg7uKsz4/s1600/2014-07-24_11-48-41_53.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Inside the (new) capitol building. I'd never been to Florida before, so this trip added me both a state and a capital to my list.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Turns out we had almost a whole day of down-time in Tallahassee, and everybody we asked said the best thing to do would be to go to <a href="http://www.floridastateparks.org/history/parkhistory.cfm?parkid=28">Wakulla Springs State Park</a>. I was picturing something along the lines of Yellowstone's hot springs and geysers, but when we got there it was actually a mini-lake with a high-dive and docks. And the water was free-zing. I made sure to dunk all the way under to make my mama proud before we headed off to find some trails. Those weird stump-y things coming up from the swampy ground are actually tree roots!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPEd9CiQdEbxBii_8DxJzPHqEjBLdscL9NmXpm1toMBSbDfxOc0gvVkesLoQw6_pR-L3_lInoefLlw6s-FxIaINwAe3l_YzgpWxzUDKdAOQ0Arl5nodbGEJsKpSdQW-KEO1H8U5MsKkg/s1600/DSC_9596.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPEd9CiQdEbxBii_8DxJzPHqEjBLdscL9NmXpm1toMBSbDfxOc0gvVkesLoQw6_pR-L3_lInoefLlw6s-FxIaINwAe3l_YzgpWxzUDKdAOQ0Arl5nodbGEJsKpSdQW-KEO1H8U5MsKkg/s1600/DSC_9596.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Apparently, Wakulla is the world's "largest and deepest freshwater spring"--and unlike the big body of freshwater I'm used to from home, this one has alligators in it.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJM6vwpBEK_YFlTnUP0tcsmTF4IZ72jdHUxm_gMi5YVEXCXArzzT4ZWL6bvWypsQMW3z3XAZ7uK8PsIOK6oMTkHVevrt3srGF9CO0TwKW8tXq8Mqx5VOzMku3Nx9ePnfmfCJ9yAcAERyk/s1600/DSC_9602.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJM6vwpBEK_YFlTnUP0tcsmTF4IZ72jdHUxm_gMi5YVEXCXArzzT4ZWL6bvWypsQMW3z3XAZ7uK8PsIOK6oMTkHVevrt3srGF9CO0TwKW8tXq8Mqx5VOzMku3Nx9ePnfmfCJ9yAcAERyk/s1600/DSC_9602.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some 'shrooms.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-D6dGB5b-hAaBYnMTW7iiGCP3jcRrK71HOMS4J73HPb_qihDbBgzZLN1fXkUKiSpJAnaXkB8uhHmeVrkq9Hb9anDx_VxCdnNCQPIKCdWc5oWyiksL4_39AMyRIOZxrFyl2BUDIEYcijI/s1600/2014-07-25_12-59-03_82.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-D6dGB5b-hAaBYnMTW7iiGCP3jcRrK71HOMS4J73HPb_qihDbBgzZLN1fXkUKiSpJAnaXkB8uhHmeVrkq9Hb9anDx_VxCdnNCQPIKCdWc5oWyiksL4_39AMyRIOZxrFyl2BUDIEYcijI/s1600/2014-07-25_12-59-03_82.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Since our first "event" of the day on Friday was services at the synagogue, we left Tallahassee early enough to have time to play at the beach in Panama City in the Gulf! It was glorious. I've never been in a natural body of water that warm before--the water felt like it was at least air temperature, if not body temperature (which were probably not that different from each other on that day, actually).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyECQkJGOLOUkWvOc6D0tu4BKzcNBJ91h_ETohTUs23oQHui0TICrDk6PjjlIP1LyYtko_4N8Or9G5jYO7VeSSB3L65Tx5pt6kv1WrvbbglAARbeHn_O1Rvn_8WeWDAE_ucKmegcodyms/s1600/State+visit+map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyECQkJGOLOUkWvOc6D0tu4BKzcNBJ91h_ETohTUs23oQHui0TICrDk6PjjlIP1LyYtko_4N8Or9G5jYO7VeSSB3L65Tx5pt6kv1WrvbbglAARbeHn_O1Rvn_8WeWDAE_ucKmegcodyms/s1600/State+visit+map.JPG" height="241" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thanks Gideon for having an ~~~ moment and writing to me about your State Count right when I was trying to figure out mine. Though this website is intended for<a href="http://www.270towin.com/"> tracking your election predictions</a>, it's also a really good way of marking which states you've been to (and how many total electoral votes you've hit). So here's the key: <span style="color: blue;">BLUE</span> (38) means I've been there. <span style="color: red;">RED </span>(2) means I'm not sure. And <span style="color: #bf9000;">TAN</span> (10) means I haven't. [A note about qualifications: Everyone has their own rules about how to count where they've been. Some say just driving through is enough, some say airports count. My rule is that I have to use a non-airport restroom.]</span></td></tr>
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Now I'm back in Jackson until I head to Shreveport, LA (and Galveston, TX) on Aug. 6.</div>
Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-89321748916965913462014-07-11T00:44:00.001-05:002014-07-11T00:44:10.601-05:00Settled Enough to Do Things<span style="font-family: inherit;">The previous blog post ended with the beginning of the <a href="http://freedom50.org/">Freedom Summer 50th Conference</a>, and that's where this one will pick up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Except not actually. I realized that I should give a brief update update work. I know which communities I'm going to be working with this year, and when I'm going to be going to each!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="480" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203132647840459123748.0004fd11869b6de0fe14f&msa=0&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=34.307144,-88.110352&spn=17.387907,28.125&z=5&output=embed" width="640"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><small>View <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203132647840459123748.0004fd11869b6de0fe14f&msa=0&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=34.307144,-88.110352&spn=17.387907,28.125&z=5&source=embed" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">Klionsky 2014-2015 Communities </a> in a larger map</small> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So. I'll be working with Dothan, AL; Shreveport, LA; Lynchburg, VA; Williamsburg, VA; San Antonio, TX; and Houston; TX. Quite a spread!. My travel dates are: 7/22-26; 8/6-9; 8/12-20--I'll be going to each of my communities, but also tagging along on some of the other fellows' visits for extra practice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And now back to Mississippi and Freedom Summer. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlmAyIPsmOxysQujzX-zlJKXRsIn1Edgox1p3rac7uy5QSFKJJN5sf4ke-EAXr183cqEDVtzF3xZ31qG7syHMZN2TGLo2Mxje789F2NHpu1HFb_zNAzXHe2K4CcBqi1f6loRZmJ4tGXxQ/s1600/2014-06-26_10-13-26_405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlmAyIPsmOxysQujzX-zlJKXRsIn1Edgox1p3rac7uy5QSFKJJN5sf4ke-EAXr183cqEDVtzF3xZ31qG7syHMZN2TGLo2Mxje789F2NHpu1HFb_zNAzXHe2K4CcBqi1f6loRZmJ4tGXxQ/s1600/2014-06-26_10-13-26_405.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_moses_robert_parris_1935/" style="color: #1155cc;">Bob Moses</a> and <a href="http://www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/leadership-staff/marian-wright-edelman/" style="color: #1155cc;">Marian Edelman Wright</a> spoke about contemporary challenges to civil rights at one of the conference's morning sessions.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYa45ysoqqUS3ZIaYh4nk_20nCLfKHHP7FTDCu0uE9T2RNUCEc69nfthdXKpD1CBkC04HpRdWnVZU7SLdRSLGuDmI5dacbSYHN22YVqeICiE6R31E5DGYJdvYBt9Do5SkGwtiPT3h-Ov4/s1600/2014-06-26_11-26-28_651.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYa45ysoqqUS3ZIaYh4nk_20nCLfKHHP7FTDCu0uE9T2RNUCEc69nfthdXKpD1CBkC04HpRdWnVZU7SLdRSLGuDmI5dacbSYHN22YVqeICiE6R31E5DGYJdvYBt9Do5SkGwtiPT3h-Ov4/s1600/2014-06-26_11-26-28_651.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">SNCC co-founder </span><a href="http://www.naacp.org/preview/pages/julian-bond" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;">Julian Bond</a><span style="background-color: white;">, sitting a few rows ahead of me and probably texting someone really important. This was during the "roll-call" of Freedom Summer veterans, each of whom was given a minute (loosely defined) to say where s/he had worked doing freedom summer and what work s/he is doing now. Very cool to see that lots are still involved in civil rights, education, and equal-access work 50 years later! </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNIE4Aey-gEXaAj4zmjIdq0TZnpysf3Ko2jOxTQh2vWFbupxV0YqYPh-NgQKkxXowWHl-CLiuMO9x6aAbTXzqiLDgago_D-mGjwn69U8CwxCDhblAV-1NwczIk0sSCGkbTYhDNgxkKkc/s1600/2014-06-26_14-20-02_614.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNIE4Aey-gEXaAj4zmjIdq0TZnpysf3Ko2jOxTQh2vWFbupxV0YqYPh-NgQKkxXowWHl-CLiuMO9x6aAbTXzqiLDgago_D-mGjwn69U8CwxCDhblAV-1NwczIk0sSCGkbTYhDNgxkKkc/s1600/2014-06-26_14-20-02_614.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The conference was hosted at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tougaloo_College">Tougaloo College</a>, a historically black college just north of the Jackson city limits. The school is old--it was founded just after the Civil War--and I was a little surprised by how how similar the building interiors looked like the interiors of big high schools I've been too, rather than colleges. To be fair, I was only inside the large gym, where the plenary sessions were held, and what seems to be a lecture hall, there were no (built-in) chairs in the room and there was a built-in stage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I was excited to stumble upon a fig tree on the campus! I'm pretty sure no one will mind if I check back every now and then to see if they're ripe... There's also a community garden run off the campus, and another at the park a couple blocks from my house. I've started going to the workdays and it's nice to spend some time outside getting a little dirty and eating fresh, crispy cucumbers!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3f-yaocYKni4dtdZxusk6hDwd0CvDcvkU1nIq1ey9PEZYlrEiw8Zw-rsFqGx7qUcUxOODz7IEDLqQg-N0i3VeLqwgFsBIjihBYTrUobJ0Spjq-kXebPRtliyjIB3QNwpg-PNF-dXdMY/s1600/2014-06-26_20-18-12_277.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3f-yaocYKni4dtdZxusk6hDwd0CvDcvkU1nIq1ey9PEZYlrEiw8Zw-rsFqGx7qUcUxOODz7IEDLqQg-N0i3VeLqwgFsBIjihBYTrUobJ0Spjq-kXebPRtliyjIB3QNwpg-PNF-dXdMY/s1600/2014-06-26_20-18-12_277.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">When I first got to Mississippi, I noticed that there was an interesting-looking exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art called <i>This Light of Ours</i>, a collection of photographs from Freedom Summer in 1964. I also remembered noticing that the <a href="http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/06/04/pages/6392/index.xml">cover article of the June <i>Princeton Alumni Weekly</i></a> was something about Mississippi and Freedom Summer. So I took a look, and it turned out that the article was about <a href="http://www.takestockphotos.com/pages/herron.php">Matt Herron '53</a>....who is not just a photographer who came down to Mississippi in 1964, but in fact one of <b>the</b> photographers whose work is in the <i>This Light of Ours</i> exhibit and moreover, is the curator of the exhibit! Many of the iconic photographs from that summer are his.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">If Princeton taught me anything, it was to take full advantage of the alumni network. So the first thing I did when I made the connection was send Matt and email asking if, by chance, he'd be down in Mississippi (he now lives in California) for any of the Freedom Summer Conference. Of course he was coming--and invited me to join the gallery tour he was giving for other Freedom Summer veterans. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklf30OSaM1QYEwsE9QvSmLDH0ZF3bINl9bT8Vf2Q_rJMFMqTK0X2R6-aPMCP97tkJQWf9uFYKY2bR6kwpyAupnYdzHmZLVQC_pMjnVJvq6_4fXreN7ZhDBol8Jk2_u4BmvpaW4TMM0y0/s1600/2014-06-26_20-19-46_337.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklf30OSaM1QYEwsE9QvSmLDH0ZF3bINl9bT8Vf2Q_rJMFMqTK0X2R6-aPMCP97tkJQWf9uFYKY2bR6kwpyAupnYdzHmZLVQC_pMjnVJvq6_4fXreN7ZhDBol8Jk2_u4BmvpaW4TMM0y0/s1600/2014-06-26_20-19-46_337.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">You can see in the background of this photo one of Matt's <a href="http://tellingstories.org/civilrights/matt_herron/transcripts/09.html">most iconic and shocking series</a> from that summer. (<a href="http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/1965-matt-herron-gn2-cd">Click here for larger images.</a>) Five-year-old Anthony Quinn's mother had told him not to let go of his American flag, whatever he did. In his words, "I was way more scared of my mama than I was of the policeman." (I hadn't realized the powerful symbolism of the American flag; holding one meant "we want the law to protect us, as Americans. The alternative was holding a Confederate flag.) The irony of the photo is apparent: the policeman trying so hard to grab Anthony's flag that he's nearly lifting the boy off the ground--in the background is another policeman holding a sign that says "no more police brutality" that he's obviously snatched from another protester. The arm reaching out in the center photo belongs to <a href="http://jwa.org/people/finer-june">Dr. June Finer</a>, who volunteered during Freedom Summer with the <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/docs/64_mchr.pdf">Medical Committee for Human Rights</a>. Although she didn't know Anthony at the time, in the next photo you can see her comforting him after the two of them were arrested (Ye, they arrested a 5-year-old child).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Flash forward 50 years: Anthony Quinn is a lawyer in Atlanta, and somehow the conference organizers got in touch with him. This gathering was the first time Quinn and Finer actually saw/met/spoke to each other since!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Next up: some ways I've been spending my time:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7COG4Sdo6C6zlvLRKzNWhw7foLr73mWzMR4rwlnO0hPOLrp8fbA6AVd73PBF2L3ztX6KuyUyUovwBbkdX394Tf2e9Fcykey1FNVpIiyJROTs-vqb6qIToW4Z9OHVZAaxQVOI1wHjaB0/s1600/2014-06-27_12-47-39_274.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7COG4Sdo6C6zlvLRKzNWhw7foLr73mWzMR4rwlnO0hPOLrp8fbA6AVd73PBF2L3ztX6KuyUyUovwBbkdX394Tf2e9Fcykey1FNVpIiyJROTs-vqb6qIToW4Z9OHVZAaxQVOI1wHjaB0/s1600/2014-06-27_12-47-39_274.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I forgot to mention in my last post a third frustration besides my lost package and setting up the internet: I was disenfranchised! Many of you probably know that there was a hotly-contested senatorial (?) primary in Mississippi a few weeks ago. The incumbent Thad Cochran beat Chris McDaniel, though McDaniel is challenging the count still. I was fortunate my friend Teddy, who is working for the <i><a href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&region=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=article#/schleifer/30days/">New York Times</a></i> was sent down to cover the election, which means that Teddy was officially the first friend to visit me here in Jackson!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Anyway. The point is that when I came down in May, I asked to register to vote at the same time as I got my license. I was getting nervous when I hadn't gotten any confirmation of my registration so I called to check the status. Long story short, bureaucracy sucks and the DMV never sent my application to the Circuit Clerk, so I couldn't vote. I'm not convinced that it wasn't intentional....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">These are the elevator doors in the Circuit Clerk's office, where I hand-delivered my voter application so that I'll be good to go for the general election in November. (Indeed, I received my voter card in the mail last week.)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQGp7A4cZnvIuzQczKW58Jv_hizTNGzDSTJBUTZcbFhPUa6Ukz5CqS9d9z4LbgGSEwCkaCPd1f2UHddZhkHilWiV2QjVjzB9H4IFn3TcUSGD6bXYmxz89aJ5v90HYXA9aIld_dIkLOiGs/s1600/2014-07-01_20-05-46_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQGp7A4cZnvIuzQczKW58Jv_hizTNGzDSTJBUTZcbFhPUa6Ukz5CqS9d9z4LbgGSEwCkaCPd1f2UHddZhkHilWiV2QjVjzB9H4IFn3TcUSGD6bXYmxz89aJ5v90HYXA9aIld_dIkLOiGs/s1600/2014-07-01_20-05-46_640.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The view from the office where I did some phone-banking for Planned Parenthood. They recently re-opened their offices in Jackson and Hattiesburg, MS. We were calling people asking for updated contact information, and I'm proud to say that one of my successful calls (updated info and interested in volunteering) was to a member of the state House of Representatives!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSdj4ZEzItNfcR1TP28QDTG8uSpjSfFWWZC9PSdTLyBbBbwP4YZP9Umir1qt7ZNJUc7En9DaTDBWk7a-jAJV8spelZBgLA_fuUrA4OqeSWUFWv9vcuIGOC8V8R6tkR4td9-i37SztSKNg/s1600/2014-07-03_20-13-29_914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSdj4ZEzItNfcR1TP28QDTG8uSpjSfFWWZC9PSdTLyBbBbwP4YZP9Umir1qt7ZNJUc7En9DaTDBWk7a-jAJV8spelZBgLA_fuUrA4OqeSWUFWv9vcuIGOC8V8R6tkR4td9-i37SztSKNg/s1600/2014-07-03_20-13-29_914.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">What could be more American than going to a (AAA) baseball game on July 3? Maybe getting to see fireworks afterward?! The Mississippi Braves are Atlanta's AAA team.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjHQCpx4x2ZKE4Fzn-xjGVbWrlYKTM8SDEhXJAp6WrYYymF1Q5iLMv9hxcFD_Ni9MVcFz1KmRi2KdzheVYNl5xXFlqv5PUHwMOb6BG7yEdKXCmk_Lbc1eIUgWfQINopFCaNlhC-MNlaU/s1600/2014-07-04_17-49-14_369.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjHQCpx4x2ZKE4Fzn-xjGVbWrlYKTM8SDEhXJAp6WrYYymF1Q5iLMv9hxcFD_Ni9MVcFz1KmRi2KdzheVYNl5xXFlqv5PUHwMOb6BG7yEdKXCmk_Lbc1eIUgWfQINopFCaNlhC-MNlaU/s1600/2014-07-04_17-49-14_369.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://www.oldhousedepot.com/">Old House Depot</a> is my kind of place! It's basically a warehouse of house stuff from homes and businesses--doors, window frames, mason jars, wooden chests, traffic lights, these big letters... They have a big party on July 4 with freshly-picked heirloom tomatoes! (And lots of other delicious things and a brass band, but the tomatoes were the best part.) I'd like to go back with my Real Camera sometime and take some nice photos there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The next few shots are from around the neighborhood.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2i6lqUIHUN7vzUnifvTUjwXUqWxJwKTxZOA3DxRYBCnhEiU1m-6epHNWUMEAVD81fLlI9-URfdpUmqq3VXf4H9IMhySklFQ3or6KDCS8I-CTXIFx7noUbx-imx75AvFfjjmqnBr7r8PU/s1600/2014-07-04_11-17-18_881.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2i6lqUIHUN7vzUnifvTUjwXUqWxJwKTxZOA3DxRYBCnhEiU1m-6epHNWUMEAVD81fLlI9-URfdpUmqq3VXf4H9IMhySklFQ3or6KDCS8I-CTXIFx7noUbx-imx75AvFfjjmqnBr7r8PU/s1600/2014-07-04_11-17-18_881.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">They're very very tall, in case you can't tell.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV2PwXIBzE6cV_MnBdTztNeFZZ3WnWoLQKv-Ej7i3g9ZiM0gysYMi27iJR0eV-h0u7ads0j8fpfp52pZHLPHpSBDu8kLN_FSqJ3APTrAWpV62NF1MTN0jGOSoSncmPbhHuIMnyML2l5M/s1600/2014-07-04_11-39-05_985.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV2PwXIBzE6cV_MnBdTztNeFZZ3WnWoLQKv-Ej7i3g9ZiM0gysYMi27iJR0eV-h0u7ads0j8fpfp52pZHLPHpSBDu8kLN_FSqJ3APTrAWpV62NF1MTN0jGOSoSncmPbhHuIMnyML2l5M/s1600/2014-07-04_11-39-05_985.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Your eyes are not tricking you, that's a miniature horse! She lives in the neighborhood and belongs to the same folks who started the Rainbow Natural Grocery Coop back in the 1980s (not the Mississippi of most people's imaginations, eh?). Usually she's in her own yard/stable, but sometimes--like after the July 4th parade (which is why her mane is braided with r/w/b bows)--she wanders around other people's yards. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSluosYWg8ByvCvCEGZR1sHfWSs8zfBDWkkHgrvBUPLJ5z3g8WpPBAPq24JztT9I9rcBDiUbTQFHAS2bYQTTwpHVFy-wYy7q2MV7vb9dJSInHnEsdXFf-_leUp9BREav5Kw3LNxcxvYPo/s1600/2014-07-04_11-44-59_973.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSluosYWg8ByvCvCEGZR1sHfWSs8zfBDWkkHgrvBUPLJ5z3g8WpPBAPq24JztT9I9rcBDiUbTQFHAS2bYQTTwpHVFy-wYy7q2MV7vb9dJSInHnEsdXFf-_leUp9BREav5Kw3LNxcxvYPo/s1600/2014-07-04_11-44-59_973.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Just some vines.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJnBgHv-gJE8gHT03wdtEyly7_XroMDdNqwAKhUFlbalV_xDw4I5f4jkPTa-9ygVwDIJeaIH6VOP_YAVx5GOthw8d2BqG6uhleFYw9MUHvsTqFVklx3F6BOWGmbr3fZ0yjSpv7kVz85rI/s1600/2014-07-06_09-53-15_262.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJnBgHv-gJE8gHT03wdtEyly7_XroMDdNqwAKhUFlbalV_xDw4I5f4jkPTa-9ygVwDIJeaIH6VOP_YAVx5GOthw8d2BqG6uhleFYw9MUHvsTqFVklx3F6BOWGmbr3fZ0yjSpv7kVz85rI/s1600/2014-07-06_09-53-15_262.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This was my perfect Sunday morning: porch swing with cheerios, a nectarine, NPR, and a breezy 75-ish degrees.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On Sunday afternoon, we went blueberry picking! Yum! The sweetest part of the deal is that we didn't pay for any of it. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6Ook45XT8XKQ8XUdXJiw8HVA-_vED1ChCtByKniGkpD45iSbRZn8P0SaE6z-awSOdwhio9h5mgoz-pLMu_mk2c9Uhp4hQFLeI85xjLiYAJQihF686dwoJoMBfD_Srl3z5MGvXLW6rD0/s1600/2014-07-06_12-54-10_920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6Ook45XT8XKQ8XUdXJiw8HVA-_vED1ChCtByKniGkpD45iSbRZn8P0SaE6z-awSOdwhio9h5mgoz-pLMu_mk2c9Uhp4hQFLeI85xjLiYAJQihF686dwoJoMBfD_Srl3z5MGvXLW6rD0/s1600/2014-07-06_12-54-10_920.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The woman who owns the trees (in Mississippi, blueberries grow on trees, not shrubs) has a system worked out where anyone can come pick for free. You give half of your pickings (well, half of the ones that make it into the bucket) to her for her to sell, and you keep the other half!</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbXAW9ifgaJoayht5Ec4m6r0aFcpxsEJ8uArinWcqdulwd53MX4VhAQPGDI_leRqP82zuVrkgztvzBdS3hySW_DkVxeo2RQ5x_qgPZwTvLh4isJv-y1Lz-Zx2XGXfJktKnGNFQvIoTDU/s1600/2014-07-06_12-25-19_598.jpg" height="298" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pretty berries :)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbeBDlODEU5AqpaZN4H42NZI2iJv9xml0gYbYnxk96lcC9ZvYK2YM1ro9e0cSRdnyvTUTmirXN4jtNPcz44r3dQ5S76xPuJ_NA6Yl7puirUlZPUAk3U4_fcJiOiZDuufSd02bemXymFM/s1600/10379009_10203658702563793_605922790467324107_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbeBDlODEU5AqpaZN4H42NZI2iJv9xml0gYbYnxk96lcC9ZvYK2YM1ro9e0cSRdnyvTUTmirXN4jtNPcz44r3dQ5S76xPuJ_NA6Yl7puirUlZPUAk3U4_fcJiOiZDuufSd02bemXymFM/s1600/10379009_10203658702563793_605922790467324107_n.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">(Photo by Arielle Nissenblatt). I think I came home with close to 7 pints! Yum yum yum.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="goog_249822005"></span><span id="goog_249822006"></span><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">Meanwhile, the lost package saga continues. I'll spare all the details, but suffice it to say that I have spent more hours on the phone with the United States Postal Service than any human being should ever have to spend on the phone with all government agencies combined. The most recent update is that my box of books is <b>definitely</b> at the--I kid you not--"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_letter_office">Dead Letter Center</a>"--in Atlanta. The name has officially been changed to "Mail Recovery Center" for many years (decades?), but everyone still refers to it as the DLC. But here's the deal-io. USPS auctions people's stuff off. Because most people don't go through the trouble of contacting them by any means possible as I've done. So they wind up with boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff--hundreds of lost Apple products, thousands of books, boxes and boxes of ownerless Lego sets. When I heard this I 1) freaked out that all my books were being sold and 2) decided that I was going to go down to one of these auctions and write a piece about it for the <i>New Yorker</i>. Just my luck: they <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/news/post-office-moving-atlanta-unclaimed-mail-auction-/nWkQs/">stopped doing live auctions</a> in favor of online ones a year ago. So now you can <b><a href="http://www.govdeals.com/">buy other people's belongings even more easily!</a></b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7_jQPcXq6oRNJ5Gg1nmLtUxw56j2zQOnTqWE8K2tN_Fg3H3WA1V5rZk0Puq0ETHteAGD1LwSMcNbkCBdLKphyLMnLDUtiYJhp93vu-YMXgxrJE0zzSQSezExCImtQ5gUWKeKzF52q3L4/s1600/help.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7_jQPcXq6oRNJ5Gg1nmLtUxw56j2zQOnTqWE8K2tN_Fg3H3WA1V5rZk0Puq0ETHteAGD1LwSMcNbkCBdLKphyLMnLDUtiYJhp93vu-YMXgxrJE0zzSQSezExCImtQ5gUWKeKzF52q3L4/s1600/help.JPG" height="303" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, wouldn't you know: I walked into work on Monday and was told there was a package waiting for me! I obviously freaked out, excited that my books had finally made it to Mississippi! What a letdown when I heard it wasn't a big box, but rather a small bubbler mailer. So I walked dejectedly to my desk and found this envelope! From the Atlanta Mail Recovery Center! "Woah. They're going to send me back one book at a time? Absurd but...I'll take it!" I open the package impatiently only to find... a copy of <i>The Help</i> <b>that isn't even mine!</b> Yes, that was one of the books in my lost box--good news, it means that the MRC has received at least one copy of my list of books and plea to return them. But it also means that they were like, "This is so great, this girl will be so happy that she's getting one of her books back, even if it isn't the exact copy that belonged to her!" Let me tell you, I was not happy.<br />I called USPS once more and finally was able to acquire an email address (which bounced. Thanks <a href="https://twitter.com/USPS/status/454738433446264832">Twitter</a> for helping me find a correct one.) and a fax number. The email address was a whole stupid mess because it turns out you can only submit this specific form via the internal employee Outlook system. So today at lunch I went to the post office, form in hand, and waited while they emailed it in for me. We shall see what happens!</span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com1Jackson, MS, USA32.2987573 -90.18481029999998132.084035799999995 -90.507533799999976 32.5134788 -89.862086799999986tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-46759628394026976902014-06-21T01:53:00.000-05:002014-06-21T01:57:52.462-05:00Moving to Jackson, MS<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">A few people have requested that I take up the Blog Formerly Known as the Prague Blague, since I am once again in a new place doing new things with with new people and will be traveling quite a bit. I can't promise that I'll be as diligent about this as I have been in the past, but I'll try, at least for a bit. And at the very least, just as a good way of saying bringing family and friends up to speed with what I'm doing now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A few words of introduction: Exactly one month and one day ago I became a resident of Mississippi, or "The Hospitality State," as my new driver's license proudly advertises. I moved here (specifically, to Jackson) to begin a two-year fellowship with the education department of the <a href="http://www.isjl.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Institute of Southern Jewish Life</a>. Yes, the very same place where I <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00%2B01:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00%2B01:00&max-results=12">interned in the summer of 2012</a>. Essentially, the ISJL works with Jewish communities all over the south, from Texas to Virginia, to help document their histories, preserve their communities, and enhance their Jewish educational opportunities and religious experiences. As a Fellow, I'll be "attached" to 6-7 specific communities and make visits to each 3 times a year running programming, coordinating services, teaching classes, and really whatever it is I'm asked to do. Our big conference is this weekend, and shortly after I'll find out which communities I'll be assigned to for the upcoming year!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But I've gotten ahead of myself. I'll give a brief outline of what has happened in the past months since I became a Mississippi resident:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNXSP6YsEop3o1S1nvvWm-r6BquyHrFXZru4027IH0xHrlrGHEmPTQ9IVh0f9kNzFkTVxJ1VFbE_NaePMpFRSg6KBtAATrWykTsOs7gPp2liNVN-jdQnkpntrM8t_UNJNXxEt16csF54g/s1600/2014-05-18_18-11-08_947.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNXSP6YsEop3o1S1nvvWm-r6BquyHrFXZru4027IH0xHrlrGHEmPTQ9IVh0f9kNzFkTVxJ1VFbE_NaePMpFRSg6KBtAATrWykTsOs7gPp2liNVN-jdQnkpntrM8t_UNJNXxEt16csF54g/s1600/2014-05-18_18-11-08_947.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; text-align: start;"> As soon as I was done with finals, I met my dad in Jackson to set up logistics for my move. We got everything done (got a license, registered a car, got license plates, set up water for my apartment, got car insurance, and visited the state capitol!)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2JIO6WMq4lyIu93aSF5uSMT2QCZAoV0DEncv2Ajz2LZ6mUOaZpCHAXslAYp3GWH4XDbf7Uvg_T-CTZHDFcbsPJYVl9GApBgNTPH9yxXmQsc9hFr9-ICJ__T8hKA-BoQ7Dw83XyswwGr0/s1600/2014-05-28_12-51-01_999.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2JIO6WMq4lyIu93aSF5uSMT2QCZAoV0DEncv2Ajz2LZ6mUOaZpCHAXslAYp3GWH4XDbf7Uvg_T-CTZHDFcbsPJYVl9GApBgNTPH9yxXmQsc9hFr9-ICJ__T8hKA-BoQ7Dw83XyswwGr0/s1600/2014-05-28_12-51-01_999.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I flew back to campus, and a couple days later, drove up to Maine to go hiking with friends. We spent a couple days in the White Mountains (on the Maine side of the border) and a couple in Acadia National Park (in eastern Maine). Both of these photos were taken in Acadia, on one of the most beautiful hikes I've done. The colors and textures were so vibrant! It was a wonderful week, and exactly where I wanted to be and what I wanted to be doing with some great people. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEUKaQVSq_S8BGdcPmd9oNvd2xuaM1oZfAmxjQy63XksdBUlAeaKhePr6J0MntM54OvJjnT9jrr-IzrqrKPpcgqT04gpyeYJsDf-pj6TnEVadI6Y19SgccYebHqroJQUU-eTxW9nASbS8/s1600/Morgenthau+and+Schein.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEUKaQVSq_S8BGdcPmd9oNvd2xuaM1oZfAmxjQy63XksdBUlAeaKhePr6J0MntM54OvJjnT9jrr-IzrqrKPpcgqT04gpyeYJsDf-pj6TnEVadI6Y19SgccYebHqroJQUU-eTxW9nASbS8/s1600/Morgenthau+and+Schein.JPG" height="297" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I arrived back on campus the night Reunions (capital R, plural) began. The absolute highlight for me was getting to (re)introduce to each other two men who hadn't seen each other in 75 years, both of whom I interviewed for my senior thesis on the development of Jewish student life at Princeton, between 1915-1972. On the left is Henry Morgenthau III '39 (97 years old) and on the right is Joseph Schein '37 (99 years old). As a student in the 1930s, Joseph Schein led the Jewish services for the (very small) population of Jewish students on campus. I was fortunate to have the honor of <a href="http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/06/04/pages/5181/index.xml">walking with Henry Morgenthau in the P-Rade alumni parade</a>, at his 75th reunion.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgOYYlw0Y4jYIv3SqYY1EHtZ1UmZvSGEz7HuKK4JmDtIcvnFX0NpLkEWa6scHY81ddBkrlLi3uCRVUYHmz5LfHQqpfyg6xOscui1_SLhKDYtooPaNGUZustrmwG9r81QLG9MzxxQxGfM/s1600/DSC_9238.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgOYYlw0Y4jYIv3SqYY1EHtZ1UmZvSGEz7HuKK4JmDtIcvnFX0NpLkEWa6scHY81ddBkrlLi3uCRVUYHmz5LfHQqpfyg6xOscui1_SLhKDYtooPaNGUZustrmwG9r81QLG9MzxxQxGfM/s1600/DSC_9238.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And then I graduated!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgap2hsSEoIioSmgcTr9HgS1tai3e526jtzs-G_55pGn57nE9AKQ7FHzv02ok_M0WXY_nXsAF1uoDLZ0u_hoYy61K3oHVplr4CGzLrHRbFQsED8saFSld9tgxLXlz6RN8y2MBckc_qfme8/s1600/2014-06-04_08-35-38_273.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgap2hsSEoIioSmgcTr9HgS1tai3e526jtzs-G_55pGn57nE9AKQ7FHzv02ok_M0WXY_nXsAF1uoDLZ0u_hoYy61K3oHVplr4CGzLrHRbFQsED8saFSld9tgxLXlz6RN8y2MBckc_qfme8/s1600/2014-06-04_08-35-38_273.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And a few hours later I was on my way to the airport to start the next two years of my life! Except the airport gods had other plans that involved "sleeping" overnight in the Atlanta airport. It was Shavuot (a Jewish holiday celebrating the receiving of the Torah), so I downloaded a sound file of the book of Ruth (the book traditionally read on the holiday) and celebrated that way. I finally made it to Jackson on the first flight the next morning.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There have been some incredibly beautiful sky things happening since I've been down here:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFGFr1rI8u_CAmOptHwB31gqxnCJ4bFTa19G-RTRmSChS0a-wqyVhYezehcn6NDOTNRKo4zxuiy3iQgmsNAZCHXE1ojvEcwlu8g668xVDoP_I4d3XNC1tAIfoXk2p5RLKPl_4tR9fUZgk/s1600/DSC_9290.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFGFr1rI8u_CAmOptHwB31gqxnCJ4bFTa19G-RTRmSChS0a-wqyVhYezehcn6NDOTNRKo4zxuiy3iQgmsNAZCHXE1ojvEcwlu8g668xVDoP_I4d3XNC1tAIfoXk2p5RLKPl_4tR9fUZgk/s1600/DSC_9290.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">My fourth night down here there was an incredible lightning storm. It was almost midnight and I was heading to bed when I saw huge flashes coming from outside and immediately grabbed my camera and headed out to watch. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVd9LEgT5WETv2aTA9E2LbjRg_5M68Ll02CbC8TH9k51O_3n2uDV_2nNSlL3TWcLEWEPUBpOVeNq6zbldDaqCbvTH16Dx4HEYPhPtOxcatm-IeIvuvtJk4tB9gzWp7xKptwnVjy-jFfUM/s1600/2014-06-10_20-17-19_643.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVd9LEgT5WETv2aTA9E2LbjRg_5M68Ll02CbC8TH9k51O_3n2uDV_2nNSlL3TWcLEWEPUBpOVeNq6zbldDaqCbvTH16Dx4HEYPhPtOxcatm-IeIvuvtJk4tB9gzWp7xKptwnVjy-jFfUM/s1600/2014-06-10_20-17-19_643.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Two nights later I was at Shabbat dinner at a friend and coworker's house (I have coworkers!) and stepped outside to grab something from my car when I looked up and saw this. The contrast is not as stark here as it was in real life, but on the right (south) side, looking west, there was a light, fluffy-looking pink cloud taking up most of the sky and the light blue strip right next door made it look like cotton candy. But to the north was an incredibly ominous dark grey rain cloud. (I also saw a rainbow that day!)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoo6y3H8O-Vf_TDVRPQp0em3yKD1Bm8bD-l22pgl755a2CTD9tpK_uIMTWc2Dh4yO8kQzqSRG2L-snP7NbTYq9jUV0mNGhC6ajxf8CO9-tTh9ElQp5glm2oPBSptqlJHk_JllbcRw_nM8/s1600/DSC_9398.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoo6y3H8O-Vf_TDVRPQp0em3yKD1Bm8bD-l22pgl755a2CTD9tpK_uIMTWc2Dh4yO8kQzqSRG2L-snP7NbTYq9jUV0mNGhC6ajxf8CO9-tTh9ElQp5glm2oPBSptqlJHk_JllbcRw_nM8/s1600/DSC_9398.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Mom called me to tell me to go outside and look at the moon, so obviously I did just that. This is what I saw from the street in front of my house. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And now a little bit about settling in:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0PzdPM9COmSu883LhbKplD_ZgMAdBReFthY0uTe2Ep-DfJG0qXE6hAs8bIqCCRDoaZljKrruKOU9A4EdloSS21wrMXr-LJHgzzPJcrP0ImaqCJm-actPQBjChctMCEtrchcFGWm8COmI/s1600/2014-06-20_17-43-35_249.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0PzdPM9COmSu883LhbKplD_ZgMAdBReFthY0uTe2Ep-DfJG0qXE6hAs8bIqCCRDoaZljKrruKOU9A4EdloSS21wrMXr-LJHgzzPJcrP0ImaqCJm-actPQBjChctMCEtrchcFGWm8COmI/s1600/2014-06-20_17-43-35_249.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is my house!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhve9AC80VTXVWvlRcTOBsg-nFF0iCOTAziM2Xccyt2ToC9nbEJ8-_yjmbu1ZXn_X3ZH2Efst_A4mQmSFGLiNM73dERUDEruPvgZ17aIXwbiVzt4-j71MNoHTRkb-6RwnqscTlpwy_qQi0/s1600/2014-06-20_17-42-55_257.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhve9AC80VTXVWvlRcTOBsg-nFF0iCOTAziM2Xccyt2ToC9nbEJ8-_yjmbu1ZXn_X3ZH2Efst_A4mQmSFGLiNM73dERUDEruPvgZ17aIXwbiVzt4-j71MNoHTRkb-6RwnqscTlpwy_qQi0/s1600/2014-06-20_17-42-55_257.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And this is my porch swing! The first few</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">days I ate ever single meal on the swing :)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5N2MqOpUxw-4BKCuQfcl_m614Vt4RDRj5Vq2CaWC2Jma4gjUMbrMuMfynRhXuvNXS-kBsvKbToQJdScdiEZvFVs-UrjxbSI13Ofr0usNhRateT578qq09D5Pwxwi-mzf051D1S2pTd3w/s1600/2014-06-13_01-05-35_405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5N2MqOpUxw-4BKCuQfcl_m614Vt4RDRj5Vq2CaWC2Jma4gjUMbrMuMfynRhXuvNXS-kBsvKbToQJdScdiEZvFVs-UrjxbSI13Ofr0usNhRateT578qq09D5Pwxwi-mzf051D1S2pTd3w/s1600/2014-06-13_01-05-35_405.jpg" height="238" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is my room. The postcard collection has been<br />in the works for a long while--one is from a high<br />school friend, sent to me at camp in 2007!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgghAdlf_UOpfWj_ciPuNydx-obbZx5v43hUIe0w9hyDNErtzZOrAma-19Zgmn9-cH-sqVwlILwUgou7mlUavJcVQcZgsdVF0pg-oUNJ8Y6lSH1GM3ZaCuSKC20Vn8oEK0qJiDkqQeFubc/s1600/2014-06-09_19-29-33_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgghAdlf_UOpfWj_ciPuNydx-obbZx5v43hUIe0w9hyDNErtzZOrAma-19Zgmn9-cH-sqVwlILwUgou7mlUavJcVQcZgsdVF0pg-oUNJ8Y6lSH1GM3ZaCuSKC20Vn8oEK0qJiDkqQeFubc/s1600/2014-06-09_19-29-33_600.jpg" height="148" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And these are my Mississippi Frizzies!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiooVIDGNAZjqEmgNx5l9mqsIaulyl5ckRx2YMu6vd7MeAtGXrQGhhqERvGAsNPvLjAeomIoRWVt4qM9MSlOuHp6oOgAs40CmhyV8BHZJp6tMXPcJHiD4dPDdXuSzpXp_4EYCgjpzG5QG0/s1600/2014-06-19_19-59-47_868.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiooVIDGNAZjqEmgNx5l9mqsIaulyl5ckRx2YMu6vd7MeAtGXrQGhhqERvGAsNPvLjAeomIoRWVt4qM9MSlOuHp6oOgAs40CmhyV8BHZJp6tMXPcJHiD4dPDdXuSzpXp_4EYCgjpzG5QG0/s1600/2014-06-19_19-59-47_868.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There have been two poignant frustrations in the past couple weeks: 1) One of my boxes never arrived! According to the tracking website, it went from New Jersey to..... California, and then to Memphis. And then disappeared. An actual quote of something I said to one of the tens of USPS employees I've spoken to by phone in the past week and a half: "I know it's probably a federal offense for you to open my package, but I can tell you exactly what's in it in case you are allowed..." (I wrote up an incredibly comprehensive list and it's currently circulating in Jackson, Memphis, and (hopefully) the package recovery warehouse in Atlanta. So what's in the box? All my thesis books and all my books on Mississippi and the Civil Rights Movement. Hopefully I'll get it back...<br /><br /> 2) The internet. I didn't have it until two days ago. And then when they finally sent the modem, etc., it turns out that my house is too far from the cable connection point outside, so the signal doesn't work. Probably the funniest thing about the whole mess is every time you call they tell you "you know, you can set this all up online!" Um, the whole point is that I can't, because I don't have internet, which is why I'm trying to get internet. Anyway, after too much hold music and much back-and-forth, the technician finally came out; now it's working, though they still need to tighten up the distances so it's as fast as it's supposed to be. Let me tell you, trying to move and set up all the new things one has to set up when when moves--or trying to deal with a lost package--without internet is a real pain. </span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And a bit of civil rights before signing off:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi4HnxpJKEzjGzAK8o-tZBZ4jpKfXtrD_ExXlfXffaWjh4sRgfBJlonrx5XUUYNDwvy0lUTf4tlplu_lmMFGwhmH3WGj-rW1OgKpJ8dFo_SxoPZLUwoUxNnBpIKGz1C6Q0nN7EqTFM9Ng/s1600/2014-06-15_17-53-08_862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi4HnxpJKEzjGzAK8o-tZBZ4jpKfXtrD_ExXlfXffaWjh4sRgfBJlonrx5XUUYNDwvy0lUTf4tlplu_lmMFGwhmH3WGj-rW1OgKpJ8dFo_SxoPZLUwoUxNnBpIKGz1C6Q0nN7EqTFM9Ng/s1600/2014-06-15_17-53-08_862.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Last Sunday I drove up to <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/fGRzb">Philadelphia, MS</a> for the kickoff of the Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary Commemoration. The ceremony--a memorial/commemoration for James Chaney, Andy Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, three Freedom Summer volunteers murdered by the KKK in Philadelphia, MS that summer because of their work. <a href="http://www.historicmtzion.org/index.php/ct-menu-item-1/news">Some of those in attendance</a> included <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/08/02/206813091/to-60s-civil-rights-hero-math-is-kids-formula-for-success">Bob Moses</a> (third person from left in the chain), <a href="http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/filmandmedia/collections/henry-hampton-collection/eyes1/dennis.htm">Dave Dennis</a> (to Moses' right), <a href="http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/schwernertestimony.html">Rita Schwerner-Bender</a> (next to Dennis), former <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1718439">Governor William Winter</a> (behind Schwerner-Bender), and <a href="http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/lew0bio-1">Congressman John Lewis</a> (second from right in the row).</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This upcoming week is the Mississippi Freedom Summer <a href="http://freedom50.org/">50th Anniversary Conference</a>, and the ISJL is helping to coordinate some <a href="http://www.isjl.org/freedom-summer-50th.html">additional programs</a>, events, and speakers. One of those is a gallery tour of the <a href="http://www.msmuseumart.org/index.php/exhibitions/exhibition/this-light-of-ours-activist-photographers-of-the-civil-rights-movement">This Light of Ours</a> photography exhibit currently up at the Mississippi Museum of Art; coincidentally, the curator (and one of the artists whose work is included) is Matt Herron, a Princeton alumnus ('53) featured on the June issue of the <a href="http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/06/04/pages/6392/index.xml">alumni magazine</a>. I sent him an email to see if he might be in town for any of the conference, and it turns out he is--and invited me to attend the gallery tour he's giving on Thursday!</span>Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com1Jackson, MS, USA32.2987573 -90.18481029999998132.084035799999995 -90.507533799999976 32.5134788 -89.862086799999986tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-74900297647957715232013-05-23T17:46:00.002-05:002013-05-23T17:50:30.474-05:00The final post: Munich and Salzburg (cue "Sound of Music" songs)<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The last few days in Prague were a whirlwind of taking tests (6), writing papers (4, including a 7-pager that I wrote in 3.5 hours. New record!), Seeing Things I Hadn't Seen Yet, packing, and eating blintzes for Shavuot. Then I headed off to the subway at 6am to catch a 7am bus to Munich (in Princeton, someone always offers to help me clunk my suitcase down the stairs to the NJTransit; not so in Prague, apparently). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">MUNICH/MITTENWALD:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXYfxnRutCVJvvj6aZHBRK8e3e9bvbj5Ke1-kgK66rW8Ug9RBwW3qJ15ufoy8eSA3i18AXIv2AnvUe0cna4SSw-Kpd-sdQJCHvonYEPASjbBIWUFSBpdYRbMJa_HZZSdV6wrfGAfs1UAM/s1600/DSC_7312.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXYfxnRutCVJvvj6aZHBRK8e3e9bvbj5Ke1-kgK66rW8Ug9RBwW3qJ15ufoy8eSA3i18AXIv2AnvUe0cna4SSw-Kpd-sdQJCHvonYEPASjbBIWUFSBpdYRbMJa_HZZSdV6wrfGAfs1UAM/s400/DSC_7312.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">One of the highlights of the afternoon of wandering around town with Michele was the middle-aged Bavarian man we met at the flea market of the City Museum: he started chatting with us, gave me two postcards, and upon learning that I'm from Chicago, said he'd been here once (the airport) on his way to Madison to visit his brother; apparently, he had a chance meeting with the then-governor, though his brother didn't believe him until the governor's secretary recognized him the next day! When we left, he gave us some enormous Bavarian radishes to eat. The City Museum is right near the Ohel Jakob Synagogue of the new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohel_Jakob_synagogue_(Munich)">Jewish Center Munich</a> (their webpage is all in German), where we went for services. It was much nicer than the shul in Berlin, and although it was huge with not many people, felt like more people were singing along. Final count: on this trip, I went to services at nine synagogues in six cities (this doesn't include cities where I went to synagogues but not during service time). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzM1uVK2d3LRdtvi9dmyAUZRBR42iLp4E7z_fB4IctIFTiy3Z7Le2Ofk4XmoLV5TfzSSiyMWgCvVjUrV1Y_MQH4Dc_BInWh6aniH0OqrNkIjvc4MBkdJgXlOYzbHUstHVjF6nMk4NAOc0/s1600/DSC_6500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzM1uVK2d3LRdtvi9dmyAUZRBR42iLp4E7z_fB4IctIFTiy3Z7Le2Ofk4XmoLV5TfzSSiyMWgCvVjUrV1Y_MQH4Dc_BInWh6aniH0OqrNkIjvc4MBkdJgXlOYzbHUstHVjF6nMk4NAOc0/s400/DSC_6500.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The weather report said that Saturday was going to be the only all-nice day the whole time I was in the area, so we booked a train ticket to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittenwald">Mittenwald</a>, from where there are lots of hiking trails in the Alps! Yes, this is really how perfect it is up in the mountains. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Even after leaving the area, we could hear the clanging of the bells around the necks of the sheep. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">"Good [morning] [plane] jumping [through] the moon."</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpmPgVcm5fB-RvekGbis5qUjr5UxAFZhO2jLtpyg9L1OTGzqpNq1eLxHqip7oGF873rWwDj5QfG9GQD8glyuI6HjF6XO7EVG4trha_Vni_llYyeXzZJnez4vjkanC8kDg_TEQOMotVd4E/s1600/DSC_6831.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpmPgVcm5fB-RvekGbis5qUjr5UxAFZhO2jLtpyg9L1OTGzqpNq1eLxHqip7oGF873rWwDj5QfG9GQD8glyuI6HjF6XO7EVG4trha_Vni_llYyeXzZJnez4vjkanC8kDg_TEQOMotVd4E/s400/DSC_6831.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Van Gogh! I think I tried to draw this painting in 5th grade art with Debbie. Many of the museums have a special 1-euro entry fee on Sundays, so Michele and I seized the rainy day to check out the new and old art museums. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiq_KWXIlxzqAl8Jh9-JmG-VYZkluWTbX6v4gfkeKpoYVNId9GnND1p_zsuF-FYJBzm4_9dvGyT0x2sKCYeLHkguH5Zt29WJsej-xODxmCfkQofQiaRG2cSsLFA1E6BWbOtUElhsKPqHA/s1600/DSC_6880.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiq_KWXIlxzqAl8Jh9-JmG-VYZkluWTbX6v4gfkeKpoYVNId9GnND1p_zsuF-FYJBzm4_9dvGyT0x2sKCYeLHkguH5Zt29WJsej-xODxmCfkQofQiaRG2cSsLFA1E6BWbOtUElhsKPqHA/s400/DSC_6880.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">After the museums, I went out in the drizzle to see part of the enormous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englischer_Garten">Englischer Garten</a>. This is the Monopteros, in the southern part of the park. I did a lot of walking and couldn't sit down on any of the benches since they were all wet, so I kept walking through the park, trying to figure out where I was, and eventually made my way out and onto one of the main streets again. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cbiAdgnP80uAccs9rcg5v4RjdHJXhoMVOwZrmF1zNnxcGpybQ6KHaa1ZmcAmn7OHnvuiv858QmfxTRk60NOBVNnlM_NLfpJDbyI2t9NNpaifwakhibAK0ohMfZAdW3wuHAUR7kYkMcM/s1600/DSC_6907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cbiAdgnP80uAccs9rcg5v4RjdHJXhoMVOwZrmF1zNnxcGpybQ6KHaa1ZmcAmn7OHnvuiv858QmfxTRk60NOBVNnlM_NLfpJDbyI2t9NNpaifwakhibAK0ohMfZAdW3wuHAUR7kYkMcM/s400/DSC_6907.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I found him!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYhJY5dhZEp-4FFr5l1MfeOUjlvsvhypnX0oHmzthRS_ZOTsbGOoVXBagL1HM8xqiRBKovu7YFl9mQB7PgZhherOKd4ZcsoRWnRhDn49jiuAMkRLMTw_FErX3KoheGCxdLNIik9eGruzE/s1600/DSC_6984.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYhJY5dhZEp-4FFr5l1MfeOUjlvsvhypnX0oHmzthRS_ZOTsbGOoVXBagL1HM8xqiRBKovu7YFl9mQB7PgZhherOKd4ZcsoRWnRhDn49jiuAMkRLMTw_FErX3KoheGCxdLNIik9eGruzE/s400/DSC_6984.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On my wanderings, I came upon <a href="http://www.konnexionbalkon.com/">Konnexion Balkon</a> playing near the old and new town halls. I'm not really sure what they do, except that their newest CD is modern interpretations of classical music (ie: Pachelbel's Cannon) with modern lyrics/rap overlayed. And the cellist is really, really enthusiastic. And by enthusiastic I mean really weird. According to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mSognO8SEs&list=UU_pZwq6SjMqqF3jV9EAQEvA&index=1">YouTube</a>, though, they also do some pretty fancy and formal stuff. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguz4rk3rSv7E52CS23i9mhwKXh4hYZFD62dlReEHI9p5bkkbozD9YePwWN7qa4QehvTwQGzW_JW7Qr6313DfLsQZWHHZL4I3c6BblGedtNcKpt_6I35U_SqazJkqypp1M84Q1lxnGl0ys/s1600/DSC_7148.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguz4rk3rSv7E52CS23i9mhwKXh4hYZFD62dlReEHI9p5bkkbozD9YePwWN7qa4QehvTwQGzW_JW7Qr6313DfLsQZWHHZL4I3c6BblGedtNcKpt_6I35U_SqazJkqypp1M84Q1lxnGl0ys/s400/DSC_7148.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On my way to the subway, I spotted <a href="http://streetpianos.com/munich2013/pianos/geschwisterscholl-platz/">this piano in the middle of a square</a> outside one of the university buildings; since no one was playing and the square was pretty unpopulated, I sat down for a few minutes to play <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UQVmZau9m4">J.D.'s Boogie Woogie</a>, the only piece I remember well enough to play (part of) without music. [Also, that kid is awesome. And he's the only one I could find on Youtube who does the phrasing like I do.]</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrqoYJhQ_MnARVH1Ri16eWP-Qnhrkp9VlSEqcSCteOn0ih_VZc4k7PI0jKBptwiG5J2hDxU70r6U9-ljv5kNaeFdymJa3_8M9nGzaAKXJNJsg3vPzdA9TfD_4kkuZW8MGMzVPCedTmEA/s1600/DSC_6933.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrqoYJhQ_MnARVH1Ri16eWP-Qnhrkp9VlSEqcSCteOn0ih_VZc4k7PI0jKBptwiG5J2hDxU70r6U9-ljv5kNaeFdymJa3_8M9nGzaAKXJNJsg3vPzdA9TfD_4kkuZW8MGMzVPCedTmEA/s400/DSC_6933.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On Monday morning I did one of those <a href="http://www.newmunichtours.com/">Sandeman's Free Tours</a>, and it was actually pretty good! Although I'd seen most of the buildings before, just from walking around, it was great to get a chance to learn what everything was. This is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Town_Hall_(Munich)">New Town Hall</a>, and apparently I'm lucky to have missed the glockenspiel display, because it's annoying; I saw the Prague one, though!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb5jYE23XXFtVzYZ5jbCLL77FF-Jz-GRJ0-4dbcbWRm_17167k9n_idsJ4MIDGUWTS4CrK9bymv9hQB9g5K_2Epwi-6t-ff-6MMnGsRogH99Oclbq5zRsAXSnn9Jv6FE2whpPDxpEFAjI/s1600/DSC_7220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb5jYE23XXFtVzYZ5jbCLL77FF-Jz-GRJ0-4dbcbWRm_17167k9n_idsJ4MIDGUWTS4CrK9bymv9hQB9g5K_2Epwi-6t-ff-6MMnGsRogH99Oclbq5zRsAXSnn9Jv6FE2whpPDxpEFAjI/s400/DSC_7220.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The ceiling of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Frauenkirche">Frauenkirche</a> (Cathedral of our Lady) has a menorah on it; during WWII, the church helped save lots of Jewish ritual objects. As thanks, when the Church needed restoration work done, the Jewish community contributed a lot of money, and the Church put in a menorah as its symbol of gratitude. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDw2UzkgwAL_VYCPJ8r1TLP-CZWCGOeHvnrm42u05qkJdDoj7sNfXmSs3ceTaY3KQzWxCeethwk5ATAKR4h_7Ql_IQb0tFRwhjedc5Jf26C1ikNUzueBvALMtxxyJ_gcgrnk51LK5X3ao/s1600/DSC_7237.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDw2UzkgwAL_VYCPJ8r1TLP-CZWCGOeHvnrm42u05qkJdDoj7sNfXmSs3ceTaY3KQzWxCeethwk5ATAKR4h_7Ql_IQb0tFRwhjedc5Jf26C1ikNUzueBvALMtxxyJ_gcgrnk51LK5X3ao/s400/DSC_7237.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofbr%C3%A4uhaus">Hofbr</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofbr%C3%A4uhaus">äuhaus</a> started as the royal brewery of Bavaria, but then the royal family decided it wasn't fair to keep the best beer away from the citizens... Now the beer hall is open to the public; while Hitler and the Nazis held the first party meeting there in 1920, the tour guide was quick to point out that this was far from the HQ of the Nazi party--they held meetings at many breweries and beerhouses (it's where you have meetings in Munich, apparently). </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0FXG44WZmpYu-0hEIu9VCD8NcQz-WJPFQ5osB9dKroL4CWlQAt1Xwg2-TX0Or4Y1nAIlHUo5JvCpEjRYUc3BC6w38LjRkx6m5RQ-APwHvvlalbqLAoOhetsNcZ9lbxK92PewTB3zUp8/s1600/DSC_7254.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0FXG44WZmpYu-0hEIu9VCD8NcQz-WJPFQ5osB9dKroL4CWlQAt1Xwg2-TX0Or4Y1nAIlHUo5JvCpEjRYUc3BC6w38LjRkx6m5RQ-APwHvvlalbqLAoOhetsNcZ9lbxK92PewTB3zUp8/s400/DSC_7254.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Hitler also made speeches from the Feldherrnhalle, apparently, which is ironic because the lion on the left of this picture, with its mouth open and facing the government buildings, is meant to indicate that a people should be free to criticize and speak out against its government; the lion on the right, facing the church and with its mouth closed, symbolizes that no one should speak out against the church...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJ13aqThFAX0VUWRj3kOZXDar3R-bw9UdrEtIjOwO8lzWKvIloHwq12P2LChCndipKLc5YnrBhRUesNITcQCJjcU4uTFPXmaqRki-_GPN6NGqv4jxgyhEb6rGL342Th7xWL6lJCNMg6Q/s1600/DSC_7118.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJ13aqThFAX0VUWRj3kOZXDar3R-bw9UdrEtIjOwO8lzWKvIloHwq12P2LChCndipKLc5YnrBhRUesNITcQCJjcU4uTFPXmaqRki-_GPN6NGqv4jxgyhEb6rGL342Th7xWL6lJCNMg6Q/s400/DSC_7118.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatine_Church,_Munich">Theatinerkirche</a> is very strange, in that all of the ornamentation inside is white plaster, a big contrast to the fancy gold/etc. ornamentation that I've seen in most other ornate churches around Europe. It was built at the demand of the court priest, who chose the cathedral as his gift for successfully praying for a male heir to the throne of Ferdinand Maria; according to the tour guide, the priest wanted the king to be able to see the cathedral from the palace, as a constant reminder of "who's really in control around here." </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEm5Ft64YVt_FYHptnq_4QhngCAh6rDQq5df782rZVsPRribAxlM_tZhm4Ak0b3BhDY0wEYiY2_auBQ8hJArqnyKF6uoUuhimf_1IfPfAYNaHr_XRo__Lsx9n3hFBctHE0dHETfMyxsz8/s1600/DSC_7291.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEm5Ft64YVt_FYHptnq_4QhngCAh6rDQq5df782rZVsPRribAxlM_tZhm4Ak0b3BhDY0wEYiY2_auBQ8hJArqnyKF6uoUuhimf_1IfPfAYNaHr_XRo__Lsx9n3hFBctHE0dHETfMyxsz8/s400/DSC_7291.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">After the drizzle cleared up (every day seemed to have about 30 minutes of rain, followed by beautiful blue skies with lots of sun) Michele and I rode out to the Olympic village, and asked around until we found the apartment block where the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTqZPKZ4_wk">11 Israeli athletes were murdered in the 1972 Olympics</a>. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dASOesHShzn9PMxVqEuxDigZe-8NpB_DAjxsgsOj5x1oI-4vn-CY0V_IvlzfDzCp50oyREOtCPAoPzdKgahE41bDJyBl1yZTgR4b7xDF11gWJ6K4k3FpeFdAI-nytwXIjmACPWTzptU/s1600/DSC_7300.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dASOesHShzn9PMxVqEuxDigZe-8NpB_DAjxsgsOj5x1oI-4vn-CY0V_IvlzfDzCp50oyREOtCPAoPzdKgahE41bDJyBl1yZTgR4b7xDF11gWJ6K4k3FpeFdAI-nytwXIjmACPWTzptU/s400/DSC_7300.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There was a concert going on near the main stadium of the Olympics. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> SALZBURG:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrDDbGs_N9XgsKNighAMJkS5c5U-p_QGcoUTsERexI4x4X3pS8gZYwNnZ7LSgIZntCYQBsKuQY8YmoLg0-X70rBUeFmgMtwrCMQK3IinnV84rqW3Qkod_XuWEXyrWoq0BpSEtKs3t1kA/s1600/DSC_7351.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrDDbGs_N9XgsKNighAMJkS5c5U-p_QGcoUTsERexI4x4X3pS8gZYwNnZ7LSgIZntCYQBsKuQY8YmoLg0-X70rBUeFmgMtwrCMQK3IinnV84rqW3Qkod_XuWEXyrWoq0BpSEtKs3t1kA/s400/DSC_7351.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">First stop: the Mirabell Gardens, including the dwarf garden where part of the "<a href="http://youtu.be/xIjobdArtiA?t=4m17s">Do Re Mi</a>" scene from <i>The Sound of Music</i> takes place. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlkN6ZcX8IL6ro7GCIlticVKUZuOlXFBayTQCeGaS05kG050JC-IUQPZ_lGRAoxZ968gTEXz6n_3x5qH1shSUxDAfNFjmllUH9IexSzj0L7qZvob0EJjsqTmNTJ5-6tUrHrUcESr7AOlA/s1600/DSC_7488.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlkN6ZcX8IL6ro7GCIlticVKUZuOlXFBayTQCeGaS05kG050JC-IUQPZ_lGRAoxZ968gTEXz6n_3x5qH1shSUxDAfNFjmllUH9IexSzj0L7qZvob0EJjsqTmNTJ5-6tUrHrUcESr7AOlA/s400/DSC_7488.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is looking down on Kapitelplatz, the Residenz, and the Cathedral from the hike up to the Salzburg Fortress.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPlZY8hM5OkUYZ-4two-hJOQnV-NHUTJqhWoQUba5ZZTftAQ8YXExUvDYqms23Kvc4GqjBLsAvEVOY_PGI5sXpZ2TjSaArJjJYIoNl8Pw3Ok52KiQc4OVeNcMSl0U8lBcSzFoVGGWpJE/s1600/DSC_7525.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPlZY8hM5OkUYZ-4two-hJOQnV-NHUTJqhWoQUba5ZZTftAQ8YXExUvDYqms23Kvc4GqjBLsAvEVOY_PGI5sXpZ2TjSaArJjJYIoNl8Pw3Ok52KiQc4OVeNcMSl0U8lBcSzFoVGGWpJE/s400/DSC_7525.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Somehow, they get away with charging lots and lots of money to get into the fortress, and fail to discriminate between those who want to see the museum/state rooms/etc. (not me) and those who just want to see the fortress itself and the view from the top (me). So instead of paying, I continued walking along the trails of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6nchsberg">M</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6nchsberg">önchsberg Mountain</a> above Salzburg, and found my way to this beautiful overlook. Some UWMadison grads did a whole photoshoot for me! </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEqjawyLBlIeiev-wqigVrg-t6BhobYCek2GdTqYO4NnYh37Fb4_li_pcEg50wzZ8JAeZFfURbdxZG2rsjoGETei4tuwDXVmkbqrZwChbJC_EKF7K2oOt6WLKLpiBGITFCIYahZYm1RI/s1600/DSC_7583.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEqjawyLBlIeiev-wqigVrg-t6BhobYCek2GdTqYO4NnYh37Fb4_li_pcEg50wzZ8JAeZFfURbdxZG2rsjoGETei4tuwDXVmkbqrZwChbJC_EKF7K2oOt6WLKLpiBGITFCIYahZYm1RI/s400/DSC_7583.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In the very back you can see the Salzburg fortress; other notable buildings include the <a href="http://www.sacred-destinations.com/austria/salzburg-kollegienkirche">Kollegienkirche</a> (closed for renovation), the Old and New Residenz, and the Cathedral (which greeted me with a choral concert when I stopped in!). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIMe89AAU_23qBhXT-uM8ozrP2KzIIp6ZabgPzUVd7kyrMJrnEi-JaFOHf7cBARVzb3M8RR8PV9r-W74DrKrwkRo4454DDeJyWSj88I2UuqtrL26YwaiIbneSVOFTZLFOKfl611ALY0w/s1600/DSC_7669.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIMe89AAU_23qBhXT-uM8ozrP2KzIIp6ZabgPzUVd7kyrMJrnEi-JaFOHf7cBARVzb3M8RR8PV9r-W74DrKrwkRo4454DDeJyWSj88I2UuqtrL26YwaiIbneSVOFTZLFOKfl611ALY0w/s400/DSC_7669.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Just weird. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzI9BBiEA1hjVVXPDSiCJaWb0qywqyiIossb9VXYu8LSbgTIzDB1hv6TuYJS57wNxkxxM_FcCWpilDAz3gLC05l1Ja_eKt0DjKrWXTXzQt1VJ2YjN_BfpmTxfzySMbi_PImNAfDi-iB0s/s1600/DSC_7686.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzI9BBiEA1hjVVXPDSiCJaWb0qywqyiIossb9VXYu8LSbgTIzDB1hv6TuYJS57wNxkxxM_FcCWpilDAz3gLC05l1Ja_eKt0DjKrWXTXzQt1VJ2YjN_BfpmTxfzySMbi_PImNAfDi-iB0s/s400/DSC_7686.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Bavarians (and the tourists who the shops are targeting, I suppose) really like their traditional outfits. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwYPZckasjhyeqvr4J-8-SXGKLUNFTuHzKwxh_19O5YUOT6YpUMkLExAd7M2CUdfrfictIyK3F6kEZ896h3ApCTfelhH5JqfcrNh0SqesUdceHWdkinIwl_T87MR5ZJa7TM6rxJB2XnYQ/s1600/DSC_7706.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwYPZckasjhyeqvr4J-8-SXGKLUNFTuHzKwxh_19O5YUOT6YpUMkLExAd7M2CUdfrfictIyK3F6kEZ896h3ApCTfelhH5JqfcrNh0SqesUdceHWdkinIwl_T87MR5ZJa7TM6rxJB2XnYQ/s400/DSC_7706.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Serendipity led me to the Department of Jewish Cultural Studies (housed in the Old Residenz building) , where I asked someone to point out where the <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Salzburg.html">synagogue</a> was. Unfortunately, it was closed so I couldn't see inside, but the Brazilian couple we met at services on Friday came to Munich because they were saying Kaddish and <a href="http://www.ikg-salzburg.at/">Salzburg doesn't have Shabbat services</a>, apparently.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWWZQ7HTKo48ccO0SBA2QvAAal1cS6oCEv4x3cimuF67fBOV0iqein6X6RI6WZxNZVh1LoNeDpU7JfU1aivoIuZvj1xxFvEOFoQ5ptNEMeEWI8LFOOC9UVTrGvr2_NrBKIa0gJpCjhEI/s1600/DSC_7742.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWWZQ7HTKo48ccO0SBA2QvAAal1cS6oCEv4x3cimuF67fBOV0iqein6X6RI6WZxNZVh1LoNeDpU7JfU1aivoIuZvj1xxFvEOFoQ5ptNEMeEWI8LFOOC9UVTrGvr2_NrBKIa0gJpCjhEI/s400/DSC_7742.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I think they love bragging about Mozart even more than Hyde Park loved bragging about Obama on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 (this is where Mozart was born). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7hbLbDUf3ZIOpwwuFXFIsiK2pU6aW46eoeMV498ZTlQTo3ivgtvqpu_HYUtSf5CqO2YYH-1dug5g091oU3Dz6kFDda-AT751Mt-VKbXNJ4tg2xQvJ9Df21Rp5Wjy7sRDPn3rkJ1Y1ZJQ/s1600/DSC_7763.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7hbLbDUf3ZIOpwwuFXFIsiK2pU6aW46eoeMV498ZTlQTo3ivgtvqpu_HYUtSf5CqO2YYH-1dug5g091oU3Dz6kFDda-AT751Mt-VKbXNJ4tg2xQvJ9Df21Rp5Wjy7sRDPn3rkJ1Y1ZJQ/s400/DSC_7763.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">yum.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEYF9EwqMdkqFn_jGfSN6MF8gvpxWhpmbEB3w2RiuX5O0IVVdDsTBz7OKV8CE47wlSqBp0TLlCR5HecyAX5ROuLMKoLoemRpHvvWiSmIHOAHUnP2LDegGqxu0aBaY9DyuxKVJ7L0vMNic/s1600/DSC_7775.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEYF9EwqMdkqFn_jGfSN6MF8gvpxWhpmbEB3w2RiuX5O0IVVdDsTBz7OKV8CE47wlSqBp0TLlCR5HecyAX5ROuLMKoLoemRpHvvWiSmIHOAHUnP2LDegGqxu0aBaY9DyuxKVJ7L0vMNic/s400/DSC_7775.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Mandatory Abby And All Her Stuff picture! Not sure how I ended up with the baby-pack on front, even though <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.com/2013/01/ahoj-from-czech-republic.html">on the way to Prague I didn't have it</a> and on the way back I had less stuff (gave all my sweaters and books to someone who was visiting from Princeton). And somehow the lady at the airport was very nice that my hiking backpack was way over the weight limit and told me "good luck" but let me get by without paying. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibha37XytCwf9VlH1rvVyRMurTVRl02QxuCj64z4WF0xSeuSyQkJQo27uSJDFmFcARtab3CRzN3lbbsqZL61pCz8suvaZxmuUNOg1gjKQoIRzM7IAnRk11FXkyjRvXB6sBR-b76w_c-ug/s1600/DSC_7778.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibha37XytCwf9VlH1rvVyRMurTVRl02QxuCj64z4WF0xSeuSyQkJQo27uSJDFmFcARtab3CRzN3lbbsqZL61pCz8suvaZxmuUNOg1gjKQoIRzM7IAnRk11FXkyjRvXB6sBR-b76w_c-ug/s400/DSC_7778.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It seemed fitting to end a semester in Europe with a beer on the way back home. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And that just about wraps up the semester...Facebook photos will follow (eventually). Thanks for reading!</span>Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Munich, Germany48.1366069 11.57708509999997747.967119399999994 11.254361599999976 48.3060944 11.899808599999977tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-69726863795265200212013-05-09T16:29:00.001-05:002013-05-10T03:39:39.541-05:00Going to Berlin 4 days before our JPs were due was a great idea! (Seriously)<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">First, a quick title explanation. Princeton requires every senior to write a thesis; most departments also require independent research junior year, too. The history department requires independent research both semesters junior year, both times culminating in a junior paper (JP). When we decided a month ago to go to Berlin this past weekend, neither Anna nor I really comprehended how close it was to our JP deadline of May 7. Both of us used Berlin as a major source of motivation, though, and we pretty much had full drafts together by the time our bus pulled away from Prague! (At the end of this post you'll see a celebratory post-JP ice cream picture of me and Anna). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Though <a href="http://arttart.de/">Mic<span style="background-color: white;">h<span style="text-align: -webkit-center;">è</span>le</span></a>--mom's friend and my birthday twin--thought we might find the directions from the bus station to her apartment to be complicated, we found a nice German lady to show us how to get from the subway stop to the right street, and crashed almost immediately (though not before eating a <a href="http://gawker.com/5990806/us-ban-on-kinder-surprise-eggs-finally-lifted-kinda">kinder-egg</a>!)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In the morning, we took our time waking up and then went for an all-day walk around the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6neberg">Schöneberg</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreuzberg">Kreuzberg</a> districts. Kreuzberg is definitely more on the tourist hit-list, but </span>Schöneberg less-so. Among other sites, we saw where the socialist revolutionary/Marxist theorist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Luxemburg">Rosa Luxemburg</a> was murdered, and ate lunch at the cafeteria in the basement of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathaus_Sch%C3%B6neberg">Rathaus Schöneberg</a> (city hall) where <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBUnRHNk21U">JFK gave his "ich bin ein Berliner" speech</a> (1:44) in 1963. We also walked through lots of parks--some of them secret--including many whose playgrounds were constructed of wood!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Kreuzberg was surrounded on three sides by the Berlin Wall, and when the wall came down, it was smack in the middle of the city. Rent was cheap at first so lots of artist-folk and other similarly-minded people came, but now there are huge conflicts between <a href="http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=606">squatters</a> and local governments--and the gentrifiers who are trying to come in and raise prices. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Anna and I split off for a bit to wander the Turkish market--a strange mix of tourists buying Turkish delights (us) and fancy jams (also us) and locals buying necessities (fabric, vegetables, sandals, soap). The best part of the market, of course, was that many of the stands had free samples of their produce: the best pineapple I've ever eaten, perfectly-salted crispy cucumber, juicy orange, and lots and lots of jams. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Very Berlin: outdoor <a href="http://www.pingpongmap.net/#">ping-pong tables everywhere</a>! (721 clan, if we come to Berlin for Thanksgiving, everyone can play at once! They do four-person games here, where each person gets a quarter of the table and each time someone hits it you run clockwise to the next quarter). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I was also very impressed with the street art and murals that seemed to be everywhere; much more prominent than in Prague, certainly, and more purposeful and well-done in Berlin than anywhere else I've been. These faces are painted on the side of an apartment building complex, and each side of each building had a different set of people.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In the afternoon, we headed to the Jewish Museum. After wandering around aimlessly for a bit (the museum is huge and, despite maps, complicated to navigate) we realized that what we really wanted to see was the <a href="http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/01-Exhibitions/02-Special-Exhibitions/2013/whole-truth.php">"The Whole Truth...everything you always wanted to know about the Jews" exhibit</a>. The "Jew in a box/Ask a Jew" part has been pretty controversial--both the <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/europe/berlin-exhibition-on-judaism-hits-a-nerve.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">New York Times</a></i> and the <i><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/04/ask-a-jewish-person.html">New Yorker</a></i> wrote about it--but unfortunately we weren't there at the right time of day. Although I thought the exhibit was well-done and probably very informative for someone with little Jewish knowledge (it had sections on everything from "Who is a Jew?" and "Why do Jews cover their hair?" to "Is it okay to joke about the Holocaust" and "Can a Jew criticize Israel?"), it was strange to be the object of study. An exhibit on Jewish history makes sense to me--but an exhibit about contemporary Jewish practice made me feel kind of like a goldfish. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">People have lots of questions for the Jew in a Box to answer.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Before heading to Shabbat services, we stopped in at this Russian dive for a much-needed snack. We got potato-filled fried dough, essentially, and I have no idea what it was called but it was delicious! Huge numbers of Russian immigrants have come to Berlin since the fall of Communism. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Saturday was a tourist-trap day. Not really, but Anna and I did All The Things You're Supposed to Do in Berlin. <a href="http://www.berlin.de/mauer/orte/potsdamer_leipziger_platz/index.en.php">Potsdamer Platz</a> was the meeting place of the four occupational zones of Berlin post-WWII. Now, there's a cheesy segment of the Berlin Wall set up there with an even cheesier "get your East Berlin stamp in your passport here!" booth (how is that legal?).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://www.stiftung-denkmal.de/en/memorials/the-memorial-to-the-murdered-jews-of-europe.html#c694">Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe</a> is right smack in the middle of everything. Like the exhibit at the Jewish Museum, there's been a lot of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/07/the-inadequacy-of-berlins-memorial-to-the-murdered-jews-of-europe.html">controversy about this memorial</a>, which opened in 2005. The memorial consists of 2711 concrete-like blocks of concrete of different heights, laid out in perfect, evenly-spaced rows and columns. But, unless you specifically know that the related Information Centre is beneath your feet, <span id="goog_346067298"></span>you have no idea that what you're walking through is a memorial<span id="goog_346067299"></span>. Consequently, we saw people our age (!) hop up on top of a block and jump from one to the next. Maybe they were were just being jerks, but it seems like after enough of that kind of behavior the municipality would think to put up explanatory plaques. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://www.eastsidegallery.com/index.htm">East Side Gallery</a> of the Berlin Wall is probably the most-touristy place of them all. But we were tourists, so it's fine! The segments of the wall that are there include some original art, but mostly they've been redone and repainted by artists from around the world. This was one of my favorite segments--so many hidden pictures (Galya, made me think of you). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.frank-meisler.com/CitySculpture.html">Trains to Life--Trains to Death</a>, by sculptor Frank Meisler is a dual memorial/commemoration at the Friedrichstrasse train station for those children saved in the kindertransport and those sent to their deaths at camps. There are four similar sculptures along the route of the kindertransport (of which Meisler was part) in which almost 10,000 Jewish kids were rescued and sent to foster families in the UK. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH2HI4wihXsY3X9l9Rx72Id6fVYkf4WBs-yiu5w0kxTgWsGCzZ7MSd4t1nDa4W-t-JH6E1CAADmzvTuHUPNTuUI6e-ci7_v6O4-cSvVfCIeerwzX40PCl4TtMz1hISFsbUiSGfhGftPu8/s1600/DSC_5677.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH2HI4wihXsY3X9l9Rx72Id6fVYkf4WBs-yiu5w0kxTgWsGCzZ7MSd4t1nDa4W-t-JH6E1CAADmzvTuHUPNTuUI6e-ci7_v6O4-cSvVfCIeerwzX40PCl4TtMz1hISFsbUiSGfhGftPu8/s400/DSC_5677.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I thought I was a pro Google searcher, but this apartment eludes me. If anyone can find any information about a building in the Mitte district near Oranienburgerstrasse that is ornamented with monkeys and flowers, you get a shoutout in the next blog.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2tY9-wiMeMoPCeY9594qX3Yx_DKix8eocv53weg8M5k5Q0Sr-6T5_0yHhmfC0o7TAISYpeXKtglhmjNSg9n7kP9VQIL2BiGsb35vWLXna_E-fxD02FwOV7-4DnBfkqvs6gvPYeytwrw/s1600/DSC_5705.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW2tY9-wiMeMoPCeY9594qX3Yx_DKix8eocv53weg8M5k5Q0Sr-6T5_0yHhmfC0o7TAISYpeXKtglhmjNSg9n7kP9VQIL2BiGsb35vWLXna_E-fxD02FwOV7-4DnBfkqvs6gvPYeytwrw/s400/DSC_5705.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The dome/minaret of the <a href="http://www.centrumjudaicum.de/en/">Neue Synagogue</a> (for a tour of synagogues I've seen this semester, <a href="http://cetacademicprograms.com/2013/05/06/a-tour-of-central-european-synagogues/">click here</a>). Thanks to Wikipedia, I know that the Neue Synagogue was built in the mid-19th century, but almost completely destroyed in WWII. What stands there now is almost entirely a reconstruction, and it consists pretty much just of the facade and ornaments--where the great hall used to begin, the building stops. There's an incredible amount of security out front--the entire sidewalk area in front of the synagogue is cordoned off, and two police officers pace back and forth constantly.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUyjjtLqpO-_a__dwFa2X1VZWPAmG9z5BrhW6XT249jzY9D7VS35m3seXgToNxGW1-OKCS0sxm2CRGJxs6032viyxnVAtjFxUCAHYa51YYTQErR_uOtZ-jX8D4ksb4x8Ruvs6uU_S57rg/s1600/DSC_5756.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUyjjtLqpO-_a__dwFa2X1VZWPAmG9z5BrhW6XT249jzY9D7VS35m3seXgToNxGW1-OKCS0sxm2CRGJxs6032viyxnVAtjFxUCAHYa51YYTQErR_uOtZ-jX8D4ksb4x8Ruvs6uU_S57rg/s400/DSC_5756.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We had a bit of time to kill after dinner before heading back for our visit to the top of the Reichstag (more on that in a bit), so we meandered into the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunsthaus_Tacheles">Tacheles</a> workshop/gallery/artist refuge/sculpture park. (Again, thanks to Wikipedia, just learned that my original suspicion that the name <i>Tacheles</i> comes from the Yiddish/Hebrew was correct!) It was a bit hard to figure out how to get in--the facade of the building is massive and covered with graffiti, but the actual entrance to the sculpture garden is around a loopy-doopy path through a parking lot. I think we probably would have seen more had we gone earlier in the day, but we still got to see an incredible variety of styles of metal sculptures.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0BFUzZrDcemOtQZAuRRvylEYthdvfiKaOFx0zjZHYhdQsOGdKey4hvuS-ZKl0E28j8_E_HJa5DLAmAw3fdn78NL8DVdcQU24CeOTFkHaxVIKTyz0OpBrNthPIWifA2ec1aM0EqzLeYmw/s1600/DSC_5761.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0BFUzZrDcemOtQZAuRRvylEYthdvfiKaOFx0zjZHYhdQsOGdKey4hvuS-ZKl0E28j8_E_HJa5DLAmAw3fdn78NL8DVdcQU24CeOTFkHaxVIKTyz0OpBrNthPIWifA2ec1aM0EqzLeYmw/s400/DSC_5761.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Brandenburg Gate was one of the old gates to the city; it was damaged pretty badly during WWII, and made inaccessible by the Berlin Wall. For Americans, it's probably most famous as the location of Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWDrTXMgF8">tear down this wall</a>!" speech in 1987 (1:11-2:01). Cool, second American president speech in as many days!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbesc3K3tn3jRWWrRZr5khfKCnl_UlDNc-bmJ7URA-cbJs-k9Ouxq4Cfwx4kOiqafxITLjzs-kYU4oIGdBz2gb-66170EJ_sa9vSzM2FYqGnRqDK7hq7Cn72CLIHLiB3he20K3kdV8-A/s1600/DSC_5656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbesc3K3tn3jRWWrRZr5khfKCnl_UlDNc-bmJ7URA-cbJs-k9Ouxq4Cfwx4kOiqafxITLjzs-kYU4oIGdBz2gb-66170EJ_sa9vSzM2FYqGnRqDK7hq7Cn72CLIHLiB3he20K3kdV8-A/s400/DSC_5656.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Reichstag is the huge, impressively imposing building of the German Parliament. From the end of WWII until the 1990s, it wasn't used for meetings of the government. Two cool facts about it: 1. It was technically in West Berlin, but right on the border with East Berlin. 2. Hitler never set foot in the building, so it's one of the few things in Berlin/Germany that there's no WWII guilt about.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAza0w-mQc7pw-8Vfx4dP0dulImhzDals1vw-0xlk540m5ivp432eIpm9ZPIOSiXRfgCL_ACmpvKG6u8IzaxPYSXaJobV31VS01NOlcOfV3IrKLisZvbk6pASKjsWzsg8Z5GedvhH8bBg/s1600/DSC_5794.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAza0w-mQc7pw-8Vfx4dP0dulImhzDals1vw-0xlk540m5ivp432eIpm9ZPIOSiXRfgCL_ACmpvKG6u8IzaxPYSXaJobV31VS01NOlcOfV3IrKLisZvbk6pASKjsWzsg8Z5GedvhH8bBg/s400/DSC_5794.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">If you wait in line for a really, really long time (or come at dinner-time so only for a long time) you can get free tickets to go to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_dome">dome</a> on the top of the Reichstag, which was constructed in 1997 to represent the unification of Berlin. It weights 12000 tons or something like that! Obviously we waited in line, and we got tickets to go up right after sunset, which was the perfect time because of the beautiful lighting! You could see so far. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It also represents, however cliche, the transparency of government: from the dome you can look directly down into the room where parliament meets!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sunday morning was quite relaxing. Again, we took our time waking up and then meandered with Mic<span style="background-color: white;">h<span style="text-align: -webkit-center;">è</span>le through some lovely urban parks to get to the train station that would take us to brunch with Pinkhead/Anya^2. What a wonderful German brunch! Lots of bread and cheese and jam and fruit...</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAaOaq6nbcu0XwdmEpsnfEfGtGTTaGiUI6PHWzKC8-83z2B36G4ZN0ZVjAfgFw3k41DTd3xea_wHQVYsgXxFJb_IaZ3TvgKAYC9B7WzIdMCjK6MkR2Kxznp13xrvvQ9223my87ReOWuD8/s1600/DSC_5920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAaOaq6nbcu0XwdmEpsnfEfGtGTTaGiUI6PHWzKC8-83z2B36G4ZN0ZVjAfgFw3k41DTd3xea_wHQVYsgXxFJb_IaZ3TvgKAYC9B7WzIdMCjK6MkR2Kxznp13xrvvQ9223my87ReOWuD8/s400/DSC_5920.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We took another meandering route to the train that would take us to our bus back to Prague, and happened upon one of Berlin's many weekend flea markets. This one was like 250 one-stall thrifts stores, all squished in next to each other outside. Ever since I read the article in the <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/bring-it-home/">Times of Israel</a> about the organization <a href="http://bringithome.org.il/">Bring it Home</a> and recovering Judaica from European flea markets, I've been hoping that I'd see it happen. Well, that there is a menorah. I didn't buy it; Mic<span style="background-color: white;">hèle has a point: At least in Germany, "We're all a little bit Jewish."</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The beautiful view on our bus ride home! This is already after crossing back into the Czech Republic, I'm pretty sure. Though this was one of the few views I actually got to see: luckily for us, the bus was fully equipped with outlets, which meant that we could work, uninterrupted by dead batteries, on our JPs for 3+ hours! I got almost all my footnotes done then. Somehow, footnotes always take the longest; first semester I spent like 8 hours formatting them up until I turned in my paper, three minutes before the deadline. The time zone really is a gift here (though I ended up submitting hours before 3pm EST anyway). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the "wordle" from the final version of my paper--basically, the larger the size of the word in the wordle, the more times it appeared in my paper. So in case it wasn't clear enough, I wrote about Jewish students at Princeton University, especially one named Aaron (last name). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Post-JP celebratory gelato at <a href="http://angelato.eu/?page_id=5">Angelato</a>, with the creamiest, smoothest, best pistachio (including chunks!) and mango gelato flavors I've ever had! (Though nothing holds a candle to the <a href="http://www.thebentspoon.net/">Bent Spoon's</a> blood orange). </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry this post took so long to go up! A few hours after submitting my JP, I got the scary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death">Blue Screen of Death</a> on my computer. This is, I am told (by <span style="text-align: center;">Mic</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">hèle</span>), what the Germans call "G<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">lück</span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">im Unglück": good luck in bad luck. More bad luck: I still have 20 pages of final papers to write for classes here. More good luck: my program let me borrow a mini-notebook laptop, so it's better than nothing!</span></span></div>
Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com2Berlin, Germany52.519171 13.40609119999999252.209891 12.760644199999991 52.828451 14.051538199999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-75902827348798462842013-04-29T05:15:00.001-05:002013-04-29T05:15:19.955-05:00Budapest Part 2: For all you know, these pictures could be from 2008!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I went to Hungary <a href="http://paytonsalgotarjan.blogspot.cz/">with Walter Payton College Prep's math team in 2008</a>, it never occurred to me that I'd be back so soon. But, just over 5 years later (wow!) that's exactly what happened. It turned out to be a good combination of revisiting the sites I wanted to see again, but also getting a chance to see the parts of the city that are Off Limits to a high school trip. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After a bit of a rough start (I'd intended to get up at 5:15 am to shower before leaving at 6:10am for the bus station, only to be shaken awake by my roommate Tess at 6:02am. Oops) we got to Budapest mid-afternoon on Thursday, which left plenty of time for exploring before dinner. I'd checked the weather beforehand and it was supposed to be sunny with blue skies and temperatures in the mid-high 70s the entire time, and it was true--we had gorgeous weather the whole time we were there!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBet_ZUnLHxfXQq0_0pNCJJDw0ahno5bvN9y_0Pq1wPOCt4OoPpyXhE2Bnbvlj9g7p9aMCwEJtQFo4GNl8_tfH7OAjMNlxXBbf7-TuRrzdH8lXb4D0lAC85i5sOHxYLPRm8-3zWhID5Rc/s1600/DSC_4294.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBet_ZUnLHxfXQq0_0pNCJJDw0ahno5bvN9y_0Pq1wPOCt4OoPpyXhE2Bnbvlj9g7p9aMCwEJtQFo4GNl8_tfH7OAjMNlxXBbf7-TuRrzdH8lXb4D0lAC85i5sOHxYLPRm8-3zWhID5Rc/s400/DSC_4294.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A few of us took a walk from our hotel, located right near the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktogon_(Budapest_Metro)">Oktogon intersection</a>, to the river and around through town and came upon Ronald Reagan strolling by with the Parliament in the background. (Actually, I'd been warned by Benj that we'd find Reagan, because he'd sent me a fantastic description of what to see and how to get there. I saw almost everything on his list!)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjs3Z2V6gpEqFFv4URqaI9Pz1ndEGkWAwoLL6Xzd1HwNsyg4q13thr9rcKWJVB6P06OhgajfaKT4QvBB_AajlTxka1qF1bO-ByX7gc8Oz4RONUy20r-oQGyABI9FCzYlmOgIYHtqh_HOQ/s1600/DSC_4496.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjs3Z2V6gpEqFFv4URqaI9Pz1ndEGkWAwoLL6Xzd1HwNsyg4q13thr9rcKWJVB6P06OhgajfaKT4QvBB_AajlTxka1qF1bO-ByX7gc8Oz4RONUy20r-oQGyABI9FCzYlmOgIYHtqh_HOQ/s400/DSC_4496.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">As soon as we rounded the corner and saw the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://www.dohanystreetsynagogue.hu/synagogue/">Dohány Utca Synagogue</a>, I started getting d</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">éjà vu. When we came to Hungary in high school, we spent only about 3 days in Budapest total. Each person was allowed to give one suggestion of something they really wanted to see; mine, of course, was the synagogue. Apparently, it's the second-largest in the world. This time, we did a tour and came back for services on Friday night--they were really strange, and I wasn't really a fan: despite the separate seating for men and women, and the meticulous covering of women's shoulders with scarves, there was an organ accompanying the cantor, and his selection of tunes seemed unfamiliar to everyone there, so no one sang along. It was more of a performance than a service. Oh well--a few of us went to Chabad for dinner, and somehow were there in time for all of Kabbalat Shabbat, too, so we got to sing in the end anyway. </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfq9sosGiOQ1C-CR_TXqLrWAGhtg4b4xR2SeCLJ7K9T8PvPCw-baGzslfnrgZKcEyGhqa12zGMfC_HSgNQEuTR4a1OT4bLhSowgpQe3CMXI_X4zy2a6o7rgoHfPVT8hiC8yFHbSe4Bz8/s1600/DSC_4323.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfq9sosGiOQ1C-CR_TXqLrWAGhtg4b4xR2SeCLJ7K9T8PvPCw-baGzslfnrgZKcEyGhqa12zGMfC_HSgNQEuTR4a1OT4bLhSowgpQe3CMXI_X4zy2a6o7rgoHfPVT8hiC8yFHbSe4Bz8/s400/DSC_4323.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Here's a look at the interior of the synagogue. It's enormous, with two levels of balconies for women, and enough seats to fit almost 3000 people. They don't use it in the winter because it's not worth the money it would cost to heat the whole thing; usually services are in the <a href="http://www.greatsynagogue.hu/gallery_heroes.html">Heroes' Synagogue</a>, which is right next door. Fun fact: the synagogue is also adjacent to the apartment where Theodore Herzl was born.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3f0x2jAeEIdeDHQPIrR6UWQq6o1cy-XV1f_-2sZ4EggbLehftcKJ2tSrHVHrfAsbDYuUb1rENZsxGk785I9L4eqdV6VoDoevi5Igi9fak5ombauSa_kEIry0ZdGPeZwfhv9MDUx0y2Y/s1600/DSC_4394.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3f0x2jAeEIdeDHQPIrR6UWQq6o1cy-XV1f_-2sZ4EggbLehftcKJ2tSrHVHrfAsbDYuUb1rENZsxGk785I9L4eqdV6VoDoevi5Igi9fak5ombauSa_kEIry0ZdGPeZwfhv9MDUx0y2Y/s400/DSC_4394.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the painted ceiling of the <a href="http://www.greatsynagogue.hu/gallery_rumbach.html">Rumbach Street Synagogue</a>, one of the <a href="http://www.greatsynagogue.hu/syns.html">18 synagogues still standing in Budapest</a>. Though it doesn't hold services--the interior is currently being restored--there are occasionally events held there. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0pW_ujcQ2qrVOZofFcDuRin-nN4PNf3etlx-evOufB6eulX9ButKVYq0-wc-VPN-M5B-TwYYp6XbIr0Adj4otWReHm_l3PuSSyh5R_HGH4MUMV58qREPdijby41eYFyH2SK3q4XXsLa0/s1600/DSC_4456.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0pW_ujcQ2qrVOZofFcDuRin-nN4PNf3etlx-evOufB6eulX9ButKVYq0-wc-VPN-M5B-TwYYp6XbIr0Adj4otWReHm_l3PuSSyh5R_HGH4MUMV58qREPdijby41eYFyH2SK3q4XXsLa0/s400/DSC_4456.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Yet another shul, though this one is functional. It's on <a href="http://www.greatsynagogue.hu/gallery_kazinczy.html">Kazinczy street</a>, and it's used by a very small Orthodox community. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyOh_FnMBoE9J3ncl4yvMmaRVPPp_D2c-Nol9GfcxIQencffJrR9KpjdX4wNuS0nWA6jIZWmjT9176JUrqkbcVozbkzLXHNx8bnt4l24Jalky0v0In_PiwdBY9TUMN-Cw__WqBcerFrfM/s1600/DSC_5105.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyOh_FnMBoE9J3ncl4yvMmaRVPPp_D2c-Nol9GfcxIQencffJrR9KpjdX4wNuS0nWA6jIZWmjT9176JUrqkbcVozbkzLXHNx8bnt4l24Jalky0v0In_PiwdBY9TUMN-Cw__WqBcerFrfM/s400/DSC_5105.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">After hanging out for a while at <a href="http://www.mylittlehungary.com/en/budapest/leisure-a-pleasure/158-budapest-olvasztotegelye.html">Akvarium</a>--an outdoor bar/park fusion where Budapest's young people apparently sit and drink the night away--a few of us went to check out <a href="http://ruinpubs.com/index.php?id=romkocsmak_adatlap&kocsma=7%22">Szimpla</a>, Benj's recommendation for the most popular of Budapest's "<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/rapid-rise-budapest-ruin-bars-sparks-conflicts-article-1.1290675">ruin bars</a>." It's a very cool collection of pubs and rooms for hanging out set up in an abandoned warehouse right in the old Jewish quarter. There's not really an overall style for the place; the decorations are a hodge-podge of random things like you can see here: disco balls, Christmas lights, hubcaps from cars, bike wheels, neon lights, etc. There's also an outdoor area, and it's just a very relaxed environment where you could sit with friends for hours and not feel like you have to keep buying drinks. Although I will say that I got a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1linka">honey p<span style="background-color: white; color: black; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">á</span>linka</a>, a traditional Hungarian brandy, because I remember that my dad told me I was supposed to try that when I came in 2008.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzvilOmxqFstZxPCB9tVLPQ5d-aPudJEbEYactJvomwMp06lUyNgK-1TB7j3_bswjAMj4VfIBYjlqdMj7Ybq5gg-NAu6DOqqpLbjcJ1gQPDU3ffPvQRs5zpIxcuIguchmJFlFqAny7x9c/s1600/DSC_4556.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzvilOmxqFstZxPCB9tVLPQ5d-aPudJEbEYactJvomwMp06lUyNgK-1TB7j3_bswjAMj4VfIBYjlqdMj7Ybq5gg-NAu6DOqqpLbjcJ1gQPDU3ffPvQRs5zpIxcuIguchmJFlFqAny7x9c/s400/DSC_4556.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Full moon! Or at least, mostly full. This is the view from my hotel window, overlooking <em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Liszt Ferenc tér (Franz Liszt Square). </em></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpT03B1R9sWNW0FjL2ICB8YoeCYEqJMdQFWIdtbVAmA5MZLU-51NtwjJSnWNEBXlvwIMlYt93Sv4SUJIKQL-ZuYR3FYKEySwSk8VkiQJKk6D-yy-Iatejgd6BzaaBDk8u8TR9w0CMexG8/s1600/DSC_4604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpT03B1R9sWNW0FjL2ICB8YoeCYEqJMdQFWIdtbVAmA5MZLU-51NtwjJSnWNEBXlvwIMlYt93Sv4SUJIKQL-ZuYR3FYKEySwSk8VkiQJKk6D-yy-Iatejgd6BzaaBDk8u8TR9w0CMexG8/s400/DSC_4604.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Market_Hall_(Budapest)">Central Market</a> was filled with clothes and tapestries decorated in <a href="http://thetextileblog.blogspot.cz/2010/02/hungarian-flower-embroidery.html">traditional Hungarian embroidery</a>. I didn't get one, but I did find a lovely teacup to add to my collection! Actually, the teacup is made out of wood, so I'm going to have to figure out how to coat it with lacquer so it's usable.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv8zJ4uoZ66XwnyPmz3UM2-5JaVQw02m3lyli3bqAOCgUXD8ZtuaqaUqMl4bRTdjmIVOcU6OimGhFODt5fzG-rlX2yj7N5lnLbg_OkLWWShgsiNkT0S7wicUXjRBYX1b6iYOUyHm3_twA/s1600/DSC_4658.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv8zJ4uoZ66XwnyPmz3UM2-5JaVQw02m3lyli3bqAOCgUXD8ZtuaqaUqMl4bRTdjmIVOcU6OimGhFODt5fzG-rlX2yj7N5lnLbg_OkLWWShgsiNkT0S7wicUXjRBYX1b6iYOUyHm3_twA/s400/DSC_4658.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I think our tour guide told us that this little girl in front of Buda Castle--she's a princess--doesn't actually have a lot of significance but, in the past couple of years, she's become an icon in tourist's pictures. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotgjw3hAklIxV6wE9y4ySHJN-zrEP_jeJxC3Uiy0KmPzvJYb4jh16NI1-mlSWocztYD_8QwLuTGIHL5NlirKqjsbEUp4uy21X59BpoQHUaspMxN5SZEQ3hIPIggDDG1o6JYVJCo_JoDM/s1600/DSC_4696.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotgjw3hAklIxV6wE9y4ySHJN-zrEP_jeJxC3Uiy0KmPzvJYb4jh16NI1-mlSWocztYD_8QwLuTGIHL5NlirKqjsbEUp4uy21X59BpoQHUaspMxN5SZEQ3hIPIggDDG1o6JYVJCo_JoDM/s400/DSC_4696.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: start;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We crossed the <a href="http://www.bridgesofbudapest.com/bridge/chain_bridge">Chain Bridge</a> to get from Pest to Buda, and from there climbed up to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisherman's_Bastion">Fisherman's Bastion</a> on the Buda side (Pest is as flat as Chicago; Buda's got hills). In the background of this picture you can see the <a href="http://www.budapest-parliament.com/">Parliament building</a> which, according to Benj, is "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;">literally always under construction because it is ornamented with actual gold leaf"--good thing we did a tour in 2008! Once we made it to the top, we only had a bit of free time to wander.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;">Although going inside the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Church">Matthias Church</a> sounded appealing (the stained glass and </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #222222;">frescoes</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"> are supposed to be incredible) I've seen a lot of churches in the past few months, and the cakes and pastries at <a href="http://www.ruszwurm.hu/flash/angol.html">Ruszworm</a>--"run by the last, still active Hungarian confectionery dynasty," whatever that means--sounded irresistible. Sara and I split a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobos_torte">dobos torta</a>, which was absolutely delicious, and exactly what I wanted to be eating while looking over the Danube.</span></span></div>
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzpBdGOLYW0gO986vt9MBkdzdOIRNka5SWotZ2-CSVC27BFrXS1BBuSxY4D5Rijuvb5kVoxgmES9R1XdEHHjLg-LT2P31EwJCAEeM6TmZmMioU4N7o1O5sq1qL8C50IeClOeWQ7oJPhM/s1600/DSC_4732.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzpBdGOLYW0gO986vt9MBkdzdOIRNka5SWotZ2-CSVC27BFrXS1BBuSxY4D5Rijuvb5kVoxgmES9R1XdEHHjLg-LT2P31EwJCAEeM6TmZmMioU4N7o1O5sq1qL8C50IeClOeWQ7oJPhM/s400/DSC_4732.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sitting in one of the window alcoves of Fisherman's bastion with the Parliament, and the Danube, behind me. For comparison with 5 years ago at pretty much the same spot (although probably about 30 degrees cooler), see the picture below.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRxmijrjcIU1eCt5dYrYqjD5e2NyFSo6R-HqprAaChCDWnWslRPWi-ojsLHorS4gzZ4j77dRKL3MfloTLlQ-T8zX5JcJl0C1k0upGEHevcOLg4hryH3XDGvA_hTSMgoM0YWOiu07QWhc4/s1600/3-16-08+Buda+Castle+Abby+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRxmijrjcIU1eCt5dYrYqjD5e2NyFSo6R-HqprAaChCDWnWslRPWi-ojsLHorS4gzZ4j77dRKL3MfloTLlQ-T8zX5JcJl0C1k0upGEHevcOLg4hryH3XDGvA_hTSMgoM0YWOiu07QWhc4/s400/3-16-08+Buda+Castle+Abby+3.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">March 2008.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7JLKfjzhTO-sFWGQKlF7KnVOXOhzA1loLufzZGs4qitxCgL7uDrAYjiu6U23tgRjjYIvR0VbDJ344eAtp0XZq2KUPzbr-Kt7aDfvHJ5Qw6iSpT5X9cR_52kAagVEFJlyqR5Fg29TYvM/s1600/DSC_4752.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7JLKfjzhTO-sFWGQKlF7KnVOXOhzA1loLufzZGs4qitxCgL7uDrAYjiu6U23tgRjjYIvR0VbDJ344eAtp0XZq2KUPzbr-Kt7aDfvHJ5Qw6iSpT5X9cR_52kAagVEFJlyqR5Fg29TYvM/s400/DSC_4752.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A view of the Parliament, etc. from the Chain Bridge.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBAs8ojqhKFYKn_C45X0dhmpO2KpZP_LULr308uBrQrw0hbhTn8zivEHXIS8AVGS-39D9xnGJr2XAmQF37CP2TdPpFWHYGtq2BDQhX2jimkDx7UYlODcuSaxfaPwnrxdlI2i2jwzBtFEo/s1600/DSC_4896.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBAs8ojqhKFYKn_C45X0dhmpO2KpZP_LULr308uBrQrw0hbhTn8zivEHXIS8AVGS-39D9xnGJr2XAmQF37CP2TdPpFWHYGtq2BDQhX2jimkDx7UYlODcuSaxfaPwnrxdlI2i2jwzBtFEo/s400/DSC_4896.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On Saturday night, I took a three-hour walk alone along the river before circling back through town . Everything was so pretty with the lights and, while the streets and bars were full of people, not many were walking down by the Danube, so it was nice and quiet. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWnksT3bU0PvEchTnAMn0a5e_9r8EeKO_9ua3tiLY87Od5waYpILWUtb087cDkKdH6dOTMPoH0RuRGnOrVnREn5C7WhOQpy2YMldR5f_pRdRpW-zCaTEdcb1QcaX2AidN2-Vim6nGLV5Y/s1600/DSC_4984.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWnksT3bU0PvEchTnAMn0a5e_9r8EeKO_9ua3tiLY87Od5waYpILWUtb087cDkKdH6dOTMPoH0RuRGnOrVnREn5C7WhOQpy2YMldR5f_pRdRpW-zCaTEdcb1QcaX2AidN2-Vim6nGLV5Y/s400/DSC_4984.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A bit south of the Parliament building I came upon these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_on_the_Danube_Promenade">cast iron shoes on the promenade</a>. It's a memorial to the Jews who were shot into the river by the Arrow Cross party in 1944-1945.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWL9LkXk5-ZUJ13ibcvedr1Uh7zd6I5dkjEGDURPlyfm4ydJVyE-hJ5up88rV-j8erRrVSsToNz8fusVbBa98wG2D4a8eTI7G1oSnKqaUmZtXdG-dE0rQ5RIUvex1PI_UmI7XdiV0Ne7s/s1600/DSC_5231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWL9LkXk5-ZUJ13ibcvedr1Uh7zd6I5dkjEGDURPlyfm4ydJVyE-hJ5up88rV-j8erRrVSsToNz8fusVbBa98wG2D4a8eTI7G1oSnKqaUmZtXdG-dE0rQ5RIUvex1PI_UmI7XdiV0Ne7s/s400/DSC_5231.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">If ever there was a perfect day for going to an island where cars are forbidden, Sunday was the day. We had a few hours of free time before loading up on he bus back to Prague, and a group of us headed to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Island">Margaret Island</a>, where we lay in the sun, played Frisbee, made friends with three-year-olds, and wore flowers in our hair. The day before, we'd gotten to spend a lot of time outside too; after our walking tour of the city, we went to the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sz%C3%A9chenyi_thermal_bath">Széchenyi thermal baths</a>, lazing away the evening in lots of mineral pools ranging in temperature from 65 degrees (so cold!) to about 120. There were also saunas and steam rooms, but I had trouble breathing in such hot air so I mostly stuck to the pools.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPAyJls7hrhJftzHfQOLwRfrQF4IYFQMqGRILslKu8unnVCgRPZy1LSQEGwKTiUSWIeYqjpHY1N6SpF7f10WVktJkHq_n5prqeniQZkVhCZ8NxrrtHgKu5B1PuJHRkX0k4zjVJUIjJaUI/s1600/DSC_5283.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPAyJls7hrhJftzHfQOLwRfrQF4IYFQMqGRILslKu8unnVCgRPZy1LSQEGwKTiUSWIeYqjpHY1N6SpF7f10WVktJkHq_n5prqeniQZkVhCZ8NxrrtHgKu5B1PuJHRkX0k4zjVJUIjJaUI/s400/DSC_5283.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">How I know summer is upon us: my feet enter a perpetual state of dirtiness because of running around barefoot!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihouK1SR8IrgdvagfnNxT4Zo122BSROZw1yrORKwzbNMovBYN80jcJnxfkF4KqMkauz96uis9kbLciYpS32o1OYQGgU_wSW_nazc0OOrhw_g1VKcnNzr9Qm67B152g4cjI1jEmu-PomCc/s1600/DSC_5261.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihouK1SR8IrgdvagfnNxT4Zo122BSROZw1yrORKwzbNMovBYN80jcJnxfkF4KqMkauz96uis9kbLciYpS32o1OYQGgU_wSW_nazc0OOrhw_g1VKcnNzr9Qm67B152g4cjI1jEmu-PomCc/s400/DSC_5261.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is my favorite mural that I've ever seen. The color of the painted sky was an exact match with the color of the real sky, and the real trees blended in perfectly with the painted ones. And with that lovely picture, I'll leave you until next time (which will probably be about the upcoming weekend in Berlin, with </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Michèle and Anna!)</span></span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Budapest, Hungary47.497912 19.04023499999993947.1526595 18.392041499999937 47.8431645 19.68842849999994tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-72685323902918803282013-04-22T08:18:00.000-05:002013-04-24T04:12:50.035-05:00Vienna: art, music, books, palaces, and delicious dessert!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At 6 on Thursday evening, Gaby and I pulled out of the bus station at Florenc, in Prague. The ride was four hours, and we hopped on the Ubahn (subway) and found out hostel--a really funky, <a href="http://www.hostelruthensteiner.com/">"eco-friendly" hostel</a> with musical instruments out and gardens with huge backgammon and chess boards--really easily. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">FRIDAY:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4UtTk0fkZbLIfjBU1QXSRwQWKGfFGQHP3qKZ4GLguBzcfoOcvz3_sOrI8QjAaoy5NxpIWD2_fRp94XKk6EDAqDN60Vc6aUjFuR_YWHhYzeICBr9JRlZV7MLVHw3AsiaebG6TW8N24_H0/s1600/DSC_3143.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4UtTk0fkZbLIfjBU1QXSRwQWKGfFGQHP3qKZ4GLguBzcfoOcvz3_sOrI8QjAaoy5NxpIWD2_fRp94XKk6EDAqDN60Vc6aUjFuR_YWHhYzeICBr9JRlZV7MLVHw3AsiaebG6TW8N24_H0/s400/DSC_3143.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On Friday we started by attempting to do a self-built walking tour of the Innerestadt based off of one we'd found online, but didn't really end up sticking to it. Instead, after seeing (the outside of) the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_State_Opera">Wiener Staatsoper</a> (State Opera House), we went to see the galleries at the <a href="http://www.albertina.at/en">Albertina</a>, where we saw Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Rembrandt, and some of the work of the surrealist Max Ernst...and more. Here's Monet's signature!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_m2FPGmFKkCrVF-GG9WCjNf3XXuNpt30Ny5jueNf2o6NLQNmpXZQinoA7j20wqb3Y9EbjIJj5Ijt2I50g4Ksd3IHqTUVxRKxgvO7Huj5hwoeoIzMShHxXf4i4hw_YzgAzwrD2uOPZBLA/s1600/DSC_3258.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_m2FPGmFKkCrVF-GG9WCjNf3XXuNpt30Ny5jueNf2o6NLQNmpXZQinoA7j20wqb3Y9EbjIJj5Ijt2I50g4Ksd3IHqTUVxRKxgvO7Huj5hwoeoIzMShHxXf4i4hw_YzgAzwrD2uOPZBLA/s400/DSC_3258.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">After lunch (I found myself staring face to face with an entire trout...), we headed to <a href="http://www.sacher.com/sacher-cafes/sacher-cafe-vienna/">Cafe Sacher</a>, home of the original <a href="http://www.sacher.com/original-sacher-torte/">Sacher-torte</a>. It was delicious, though definitely not the best chocolate cake I've had. DD, you've still got them beat with some of your creations, I think. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9yptuV0OrxIycwY2CozYC-WPB0l46mlkNStLaBenAi9h86R2CrAv9Vyxk881R6kcUgfUI-qSeRYKFYa1aoB790YgYqQDUEeT5xu_p4PA2uk0PzrkeAeuuielbYHb3mHdPFqY7JC6Houw/s1600/DSC_3713.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9yptuV0OrxIycwY2CozYC-WPB0l46mlkNStLaBenAi9h86R2CrAv9Vyxk881R6kcUgfUI-qSeRYKFYa1aoB790YgYqQDUEeT5xu_p4PA2uk0PzrkeAeuuielbYHb3mHdPFqY7JC6Houw/s400/DSC_3713.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.wien-vienna.com/stephenscathedral.php">Stephansdom</a> at night. St. Stephen's Cathedral is the seat of the archbishop of Vienna. We kind of stumbled upon it by accident; earlier in the day we'd seen the two towers poking through the sky and assumed it must be something significant. When we were walking around all of a sudden we found ourselves in Stephansplatz, the courtyard that surrounds the church. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic56Xtk0_fmTa2wtyqwamITZfy3QGQSDQHifyUNESDCfCitTZyCnPEhK_aBKrtMP2djKVyFMcBujzQIHwkjFqji1lJ0p40FwE_p9yD87E_UZf_03xbAC4bS-Tw_8xxvsFmAuVTboBgCPg/s1600/DSC_3283.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic56Xtk0_fmTa2wtyqwamITZfy3QGQSDQHifyUNESDCfCitTZyCnPEhK_aBKrtMP2djKVyFMcBujzQIHwkjFqji1lJ0p40FwE_p9yD87E_UZf_03xbAC4bS-Tw_8xxvsFmAuVTboBgCPg/s400/DSC_3283.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The roof of St. Stephen's Cathedral, during the day.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiat7vbIkJpNC9Yp-fbO5AieiyO1Y-uSanF4mUZmuFvKgGrsTDL_vnNWlBvb2N_dq1rJUZNv04Vfc5Y3FmCoUIb08u68NHBFBmLBZA6-5oWMA1xAl37DnhsgymEJ8X7W54y7RBGp4csXY4/s1600/DSC_3295.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiat7vbIkJpNC9Yp-fbO5AieiyO1Y-uSanF4mUZmuFvKgGrsTDL_vnNWlBvb2N_dq1rJUZNv04Vfc5Y3FmCoUIb08u68NHBFBmLBZA6-5oWMA1xAl37DnhsgymEJ8X7W54y7RBGp4csXY4/s400/DSC_3295.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Inside St. Stephen's Cathedral; the stained glass was very bizarre here. It seemed like it wasn't actually stained glass, and instead the windows were clear glass covered in huge sheets of colored cellophane. The colored light coming through and bouncing off various surfaces was still beautiful, though!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6-5XMhe7iyHCV7o0gG_dJMfacJf_0avhMY-v1oAgstfj2FX1qFlCwibscOzsd0cqVjhAlhRGf1uvxwJEq4U-71RtSHKsBjvY4N9ECvjv9QnjfBVwVMM6fkzZbb9bcbBFZAR09k_qmMo/s1600/DSC_3418.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6-5XMhe7iyHCV7o0gG_dJMfacJf_0avhMY-v1oAgstfj2FX1qFlCwibscOzsd0cqVjhAlhRGf1uvxwJEq4U-71RtSHKsBjvY4N9ECvjv9QnjfBVwVMM6fkzZbb9bcbBFZAR09k_qmMo/s400/DSC_3418.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On Friday night, Gaby and I went to services at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadttempel">Stadttempel</a>, the <a href="http://www.bh.org.il/database-article.aspx?77722">Central Synagogue in Vienna</a>. We got there a bit late, unfortunately, but it was still enough time to enjoy the voice of <a href="http://www.shmuel-barzilai.com/en/home">Cantor Shmuel Barzilai</a>. This photo is from the second-tier of the women's section. It makes a complete ellipse, and I walked around to behind the Ark, where you can neither see anyone else nor be seen by anyone, and just listened. I think it must be one of the focii of the ellipse, because from there it sounded as if the choir was right next to me.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6h1ieVOqbEilS-iWSoqtez8hbEKdXlhyVaaUtiZdP9cv6rS-JwIzI4ZY9maqiSe2nXaWxluyc12KaFTn6-FO3D261cPHNWfxonrfAWy-gRdg3nkF_tHmp6eVuVmISCmOC0gDsqsqL0EE/s1600/DSC_3434.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6h1ieVOqbEilS-iWSoqtez8hbEKdXlhyVaaUtiZdP9cv6rS-JwIzI4ZY9maqiSe2nXaWxluyc12KaFTn6-FO3D261cPHNWfxonrfAWy-gRdg3nkF_tHmp6eVuVmISCmOC0gDsqsqL0EE/s400/DSC_3434.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We went to the home of one of the Chabad families for Shabbat dinner, which was wonderful. We got to see an entirely different neighborhood of Vienna, and to enjoy delicious food with a really nice family! On our way back to our hostel, we hopped on a tram and were pleased to find out that it dropped us off at the subway station we wanted to get on at.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SATURDAY:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQW28VoMBBG8nluWoc5johSRc4ov_8CiDL4mjsqfCMlDmjsULEJj5rSZlSuVY7fwsH4Ajt07t8WxYHLEf9l7cwaVkfZNVBlvMWs2Gs5bB-VponAlBA3abgrYrDPrcT3XdLFWHCByOEkBk/s1600/DSC_3503.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQW28VoMBBG8nluWoc5johSRc4ov_8CiDL4mjsqfCMlDmjsULEJj5rSZlSuVY7fwsH4Ajt07t8WxYHLEf9l7cwaVkfZNVBlvMWs2Gs5bB-VponAlBA3abgrYrDPrcT3XdLFWHCByOEkBk/s400/DSC_3503.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the painted domed ceiling of the <a href="http://www.onb.ac.at/ev/state_hall.htm">State Hall of the National Library</a>. If the ceiling alone looks like this, just imagine the rest of the library! (I know, that's probably difficult, which is why I'm including the photo below).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiteDqvfpI5-OFqARszlre8x0GLO2MWLV2GE7rLprAD9r7VUr11HRFa1gCmGFm28f90NjI8AOozKXHqD26ou9iKIWf6JwL5FEwad__gVswGVEwMEVijRf5eT4Bk_F4WTL0GEKFi1g264vM/s1600/DSC_3536.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiteDqvfpI5-OFqARszlre8x0GLO2MWLV2GE7rLprAD9r7VUr11HRFa1gCmGFm28f90NjI8AOozKXHqD26ou9iKIWf6JwL5FEwad__gVswGVEwMEVijRf5eT4Bk_F4WTL0GEKFi1g264vM/s400/DSC_3536.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The center "room" of the library. It's the largest one in Austria, and contains some 7.1 million volumes. Princeton's <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/library/">Firestone Library</a> has got it beat, though: 7.3 million volumes.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6komxhHwfyjZaO79spB-y65xkGphiNYx0BpkavGNBDIs2lN4gskAwhyWdC92sN0yOK4wSa-4ASqa6q7kSUcCVWJtTWMZA8wyY2CcdY9IJLT8GuAK_19qdGyoGIHaz0ealEs3e8cNRjuA/s1600/DSC_3585.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6komxhHwfyjZaO79spB-y65xkGphiNYx0BpkavGNBDIs2lN4gskAwhyWdC92sN0yOK4wSa-4ASqa6q7kSUcCVWJtTWMZA8wyY2CcdY9IJLT8GuAK_19qdGyoGIHaz0ealEs3e8cNRjuA/s400/DSC_3585.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Yum, cheese <span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">spätzle with fried onions for lunch! I figured since I couldn't (wouldn't) eat the wienerschnitzel (who knew that "real" schnitzel is made with veal, not with chicken like it is in Israel!), I should ad least have something representative of typical Austrian cuisine. It was delicious, though a bit heavy.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqdIBgEsYxGONUP5mLh18KCo9GMlQ3OoZTsBt4OcKfEzBNGi3BHh83YYmoTJWrZNcBVmrdzr3UdIx2K_xFN2YBzh9wsPtpQkPRZRIUy5IaYvMpaExlRAVbOIWsXlOTDtkBcBIY3eWB9Q/s1600/DSC_3604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqdIBgEsYxGONUP5mLh18KCo9GMlQ3OoZTsBt4OcKfEzBNGi3BHh83YYmoTJWrZNcBVmrdzr3UdIx2K_xFN2YBzh9wsPtpQkPRZRIUy5IaYvMpaExlRAVbOIWsXlOTDtkBcBIY3eWB9Q/s400/DSC_3604.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://www.hofburg-wien.at/en/things-to-know/silver-collection/tour-of-the-silver-collection.html">Imperial Silver Collection</a> (Silberkammer) at the <a href="http://hofburg.wien.info/en/">Hofburg Palace</a> is impressive. I have never seen so many different sets of dishes or cutlery, even on the Crate & Barrel website! There are everyday silver place settings and dishes, pretty porcelain ones used by various monarchs on individual (or very infrequent) occasions, gilted sets...plus the large numbers of beautifully-embellished chamber pots. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_SuN0Qh1s_dht0oYDK6w_P0S5_2VLvGrMKicC8L6RGmKUNcp9VGpmkWYWB2MtWRyBoztf_AIHIw2DwLCyhhCB5vNFZDKFhE2CeKzIqS7nQOrqWAqxc-A_OhmBJV6deLrJjspAytg_Ks/s1600/DSC_3634.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_SuN0Qh1s_dht0oYDK6w_P0S5_2VLvGrMKicC8L6RGmKUNcp9VGpmkWYWB2MtWRyBoztf_AIHIw2DwLCyhhCB5vNFZDKFhE2CeKzIqS7nQOrqWAqxc-A_OhmBJV6deLrJjspAytg_Ks/s400/DSC_3634.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I'm assuming that this is where the guards of the Hofburg Palace used to stand, but now they're mostly for tourists who want to take pictures (ie: me and Gaby). Upon trying to get down from my perched position, I realized that my shoes were stuck in the teeth! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As we left the complex of the Hofburg Palace, we saw these guys doing some incredible Rollerbade tricks.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmb-BoEWmGY1tqPN-tOmE3b13nlsMxvIpMfXUnn8r0FIH9eyd5b-tnlyRtycgX1glhZQyb3c39vN4N3qJktACNOWNa6c6Rbm68nlc2ZruDljvbPhMmc_HttmkWwp7NeuR4K-DIkfq39uY/s1600/DSC_3367.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmb-BoEWmGY1tqPN-tOmE3b13nlsMxvIpMfXUnn8r0FIH9eyd5b-tnlyRtycgX1glhZQyb3c39vN4N3qJktACNOWNa6c6Rbm68nlc2ZruDljvbPhMmc_HttmkWwp7NeuR4K-DIkfq39uY/s400/DSC_3367.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">When we left <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter's_Church,_Vienna">Peterskirche</a> (<a href="http://www.peterskirche.at/fileadmin/pdf/tourismusinfo/englisch.pdf">St. Peter's Church</a>) on Friday afternoon, we saw a sign advertising a free organ concert on Saturday night, so we made note and came back for it. The concert was for organ (obviously) played by Christopher Kl</span><em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">ö</em><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">ckl<b> </b>and french horn, played by R. Horvath.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig7ANozO4ki3Ly3FLEMDR3EKACB2hEgsAFmX6HTgE7FD1jEH-GbXhtlJEWXIjaJMosySOCXontd9AK-cvxeMRzP8xiKrJgBjJsOwtE2A4BOiwPvfBefwNLdbfbRJ8fhIb9aM1tFrx2liU/s1600/DSC_3697.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig7ANozO4ki3Ly3FLEMDR3EKACB2hEgsAFmX6HTgE7FD1jEH-GbXhtlJEWXIjaJMosySOCXontd9AK-cvxeMRzP8xiKrJgBjJsOwtE2A4BOiwPvfBefwNLdbfbRJ8fhIb9aM1tFrx2liU/s400/DSC_3697.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">If you look closely, at the center of the painting in the middle of the photo (which is above the altar at the front of the church), you can see the <a href="http://www.nassauweekly.com/the-name-of-god/">Tetragrammaton</a> painted. Really not sure what it's doing there. (One of the other altars, in the smaller side chapels, also had Hebrew calligraphy painted, though neither Gaby nor I could figure out what it was [supposed to be] written.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A video clip I took during Vivaldi's <i>Four Seasons</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SUNDAY:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHAwTxMwLO6xA67DSMhkHSGaziFgZxScG2bzB1zqDsrk4m-6ej_uPt8uAOIe6PVueazJ0sF7SI7piX5whpHUHtUyE1Kov4lyYnq-8ymyrSg5ZTwUlVF1iZ34kjI8YpG1UWNud5w1Fgno/s1600/DSC_3765.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHAwTxMwLO6xA67DSMhkHSGaziFgZxScG2bzB1zqDsrk4m-6ej_uPt8uAOIe6PVueazJ0sF7SI7piX5whpHUHtUyE1Kov4lyYnq-8ymyrSg5ZTwUlVF1iZ34kjI8YpG1UWNud5w1Fgno/s400/DSC_3765.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Our day on Sunday started with a leisurely walk around the border of the <em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringstra%C3%9Fe">Ringstraße</a> (that funny </em><em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">ß-thing is a double "s"), which I learned about in one of my classes in Prague. It turned out to be a good decision to save the Ringstra</em><em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">ße, garden, and Sch</em><em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">ö</em><em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">nbrunn palace tours for Sunday, because the weather was gorgeous! </em><em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Our first stop was at the Burggarten imperial gardens. That's where the famous statue of Mozart is--he played for the court at age 6, and quickly became a celebrity--but also where this beautiful, blooming magnolia tree is. I was getting a bit jealous looking at everyone's pictures of campus in the springtime, so climbing this tree made me especially happy!</em></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWt-gPSYmOf1JTvsmXC7F86zjZRxFhj8rF2YpYiMC7v1l3U_Ll-RYB6zs20aiK2q61s0AGOYIX-LDW4XaNnDg2_BJoQw1mmICispFTHStNr5QBaTdMCMoJknl0n6DrkgQpJt4aGwWF6M4/s1600/DSC_3867.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWt-gPSYmOf1JTvsmXC7F86zjZRxFhj8rF2YpYiMC7v1l3U_Ll-RYB6zs20aiK2q61s0AGOYIX-LDW4XaNnDg2_BJoQw1mmICispFTHStNr5QBaTdMCMoJknl0n6DrkgQpJt4aGwWF6M4/s400/DSC_3867.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On Saturday we'd seen the top of the <a href="http://www.wien.gv.at/english/cityhall/">Rathaus</a> (City Hall) from the Hofburg Palace, but didn't make it over there, so this was our first view of the immense building structure. I do have a picture of the entire building (ie: without it's noggin cut off), but this one is of me and Gaby together, and I figure you can imagine what the top part of the tower looks like. You never get a perfect shot when you ask strangers to take pictures, but that's okay. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cVwQVqayEW6VciAWUQFiO9CFmE05OXVNgmlGFlmjqOefjIpG6RN9OHp9A2SpXQWXZiQhAKuPxPcwNYAWg0ovDlV4fGjjOg1ymHGsjmfrBKjcYPsMfY6KjP-lpN9Wo-3sM_gdnZorpgs/s1600/DSC_3865.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cVwQVqayEW6VciAWUQFiO9CFmE05OXVNgmlGFlmjqOefjIpG6RN9OHp9A2SpXQWXZiQhAKuPxPcwNYAWg0ovDlV4fGjjOg1ymHGsjmfrBKjcYPsMfY6KjP-lpN9Wo-3sM_gdnZorpgs/s400/DSC_3865.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It was such a beautiful day out! For the first time the whole weekend, there was no threat of rain, and I was wishing I'd kept my Chacos on instead of chickening out and wearing sneakers in the morning. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRH9lvonNbWd8BIN8MEdk56udYqOZvlRL4Hnem_C2xlNzHfULMwBBQHjaS5_baTm9JHICHXreWKW_00zk7R3622mmYQzM_j9qRw6Z0NUO-NRp9SXRlvFcwW-pfCHDj8ItAGx_YtK2JUqM/s1600/DSC_3873.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRH9lvonNbWd8BIN8MEdk56udYqOZvlRL4Hnem_C2xlNzHfULMwBBQHjaS5_baTm9JHICHXreWKW_00zk7R3622mmYQzM_j9qRw6Z0NUO-NRp9SXRlvFcwW-pfCHDj8ItAGx_YtK2JUqM/s400/DSC_3873.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Looking down one of the hallways on the porch (for lack of a better word) of the Rathaus is kind of like looking down a hall of <a href="http://youtu.be/XhDFeK8sEr8?t=1m">Holder Courtyard</a>, no?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsAo0lEmTlh_IidoLF-rCBRkBkcPsdslgxOmMerEwiJapp86aCtXGPI8kupq1AwlMkPTrgE03IxVBZVDPJQ8yB8taUqHeoniy7GVAkhz_h6XATSM9j69A4jYgMJiH4YxyqY7KWRC-w-Vk/s1600/DSC_3958.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsAo0lEmTlh_IidoLF-rCBRkBkcPsdslgxOmMerEwiJapp86aCtXGPI8kupq1AwlMkPTrgE03IxVBZVDPJQ8yB8taUqHeoniy7GVAkhz_h6XATSM9j69A4jYgMJiH4YxyqY7KWRC-w-Vk/s400/DSC_3958.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.hundertwasser-haus.info/en/">Hundertwasserhaus</a> is a bit far from the rest of the things that one generally sees in Vienna, but it was definitely worth going. It's a regular old apartment building where normal people live, except that it's designed by the funky painter-turned-architect <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser">Friedensreich Hundertwasser</a>. There's apparently a "Modern Art Toilet," but neither of us wanted to pay .6 euros to use it.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhPlrOXlL2kpYpD68vonmWBe9ObjY7ZLKjdkfOIU2SwZPP0aOsJyvnxu8gr0G7OGap8Bt-7uITTYBja8KV3vTCQ5BSsjCwxmoaA0a_ocBHH1hAurFL_lnkeS1e8BaETruYFW-sm-8dO4/s1600/DSC_4005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhPlrOXlL2kpYpD68vonmWBe9ObjY7ZLKjdkfOIU2SwZPP0aOsJyvnxu8gr0G7OGap8Bt-7uITTYBja8KV3vTCQ5BSsjCwxmoaA0a_ocBHH1hAurFL_lnkeS1e8BaETruYFW-sm-8dO4/s400/DSC_4005.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Johann Strauss, immortalized in the form of this kitschy statue in <a href="http://www.wien.gv.at/english/environment/parks/stadtpark.html">Stadtpark</a>. There's also a statue of Schubert, among others, but we wanted to make sure we spent enough time at Sch<em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">ö</em>nbrunn Palace, so we walked quickly. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArxNkbWpeIRYN31LvHf3xghspJVsrpejJMvVI2ldsh3oWLDN7zvhTocUjMKD9SWDU4tuh-aXWWiWTL14K_vHjs0dLXX5umfhPrFW-RHeAnpuZvPSEjiVMQi21qFUGe19jM4M32o6J74g/s1600/DSC_4018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArxNkbWpeIRYN31LvHf3xghspJVsrpejJMvVI2ldsh3oWLDN7zvhTocUjMKD9SWDU4tuh-aXWWiWTL14K_vHjs0dLXX5umfhPrFW-RHeAnpuZvPSEjiVMQi21qFUGe19jM4M32o6J74g/s400/DSC_4018.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We were impressed by the expanse of the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/786">Sch</a><em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/786">önbrunn Palace</a> when we approached it from the front, until we went around back and saw this view. Huge, beautiful (though without their usual spring flowers yet, apparently) laws leading up to a hill scattered with picnickers and sunbathers, atop of which stands the <a href="http://gloriette./">Gloriette.</a> Though it was a bit of a hike to get to the top, the view we got while picnicking (last picture in this post) was well worth it. </em></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKHO5pr5dn-a9UHls0H8WgB23uhB8gIPqzq9OuenOqCxch7irEhhwTkfkek358Gspo-VA5e_Hx0yDTL6cQYNEdUvD2A0qjNJbSZ4Yj9WdrgWwJdnyJt6LhiTcAEHYYQCRC_eePF8yeYzw/s1600/DSC_4038.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKHO5pr5dn-a9UHls0H8WgB23uhB8gIPqzq9OuenOqCxch7irEhhwTkfkek358Gspo-VA5e_Hx0yDTL6cQYNEdUvD2A0qjNJbSZ4Yj9WdrgWwJdnyJt6LhiTcAEHYYQCRC_eePF8yeYzw/s400/DSC_4038.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Our lunch, mostly scavenged and saved from our huge breakfasts that we got at our hostel. Delicious chive bread, blueberry and apricot jam, Nutella, cream cheese, butter, and apples! Yum. It was hard to make ourselves get up from the sunny lawn and go inside to do the tour of the palace (essentially a sequel to Saturday's tour of the Hofburg Palace, complete with very similar audio guides, it turns out) because it was so beautiful out!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Before we went back down to the palace, I went all the way up to the Gloriette. On my way down, I saw this woman teaching a bunch of kids how to make bubbles! (There's a whole series of these photos, which will appear on Facebook when I finally post pictures from the semester.)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZh2k7orHnXl5sB65xlzpzazZKsQTYkSiyRaMfelFHWWMMVzPCUb5xjAxe3UK4xRKNp5nkptnbQQqakxIUe5LgMZ0a_09k58GSACbYa53khbS4Cxxwgz57bFbCIVftfI9SWnYErq3EaII/s1600/DSC_4106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZh2k7orHnXl5sB65xlzpzazZKsQTYkSiyRaMfelFHWWMMVzPCUb5xjAxe3UK4xRKNp5nkptnbQQqakxIUe5LgMZ0a_09k58GSACbYa53khbS4Cxxwgz57bFbCIVftfI9SWnYErq3EaII/s400/DSC_4106.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The funny faces are because we're staring directly into the sun. But this is what we got to look down on while we were eating our lunch: the palace with the whole city behind it! We had just enough time after finishing our tour to get <a href="http://www.cafe-residenz.at/en/original-wiener-apfelstrudel/">apfelstrudel</a> (yum!) before heading to pick up our bags at the hostel and (barely) making our bus back to Prague.</span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Vienna, Austria48.2081743 16.3738189000000647.8677963 15.725625400000061 48.548552300000004 17.022012400000062tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-49182527697070173312013-04-16T04:12:00.001-05:002013-04-16T08:22:57.394-05:00Field Trips in the Czech Republic: Kutná Hora and Český Kras/Hrad Karlštejn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although this was one of the few weekends I have left in Prague (don't get too jealous when I tell you that next weekend I'll be in Vienna, the following one in Budapest, and the one after that in Berlin!), I spent it mostly exploring some of the non-metropolitan towns of this country. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">KUTN<span style="line-height: 17.77777862548828px;">Á</span> HORA (Friday): </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On Friday, we went to Kutná Hora which, among other things, is famous for the <a href="http://www.sedlecossuary.com/">Sedlec ossuary</a> (bone temple). When I first heard that we were going to a "bone temple," I pictured something in line with<a href="http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/075/Purple/v4/da/0b/8d/da0b8d18-9881-2efb-d206-a7102dd03f9a/6RLZ5yoOkhzttL2Ib6kop0-temp-upload.qmwwjugo.png"> tooth fairy castles made of teeth</a>. Obviously I was wrong--the temple is not made out of bones. But it is decorated with bones. Skulls, ulnas, radii, pelvi (pelvises?), etc. Here you can see the "chandelier" and the surrounding chains of skulls.... Post jokes in the comments, or, if you're uncomfortable putting them out for the public to read, send me a personal message. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Crest made out of, what else, bones. Look, there's a pelvis!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Didn't expect to find a <a href="http://www.blues-cafe.net/">Blues Cafe</a> in Kutná Hora, but we were so happy that we did! I wish I knew about a place like this in Prague--there's a cafe set up, but also crates upon crates of records of all kinds of genres (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTCYqJsfqs">Muddy Waters</a>, <a href="http://www.middlebrother.com/">Middle Brother</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSWQfCkduu0">Pete Seeger</a>, and more). Unlike most of the places I've been to while in Europe, the owner let us look around and browse for 30 minutes, and didn't once come over to ask if we wanted to order anything. Plus, he let us use the bathroom.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpVUaivGgyagpi7Zx9hgepgwhCK39dNHtAWbLHGllEfqhALMo-ON2EhJT4s2r6TzMjCVSA7eC7jN6c_XlxWlAAOJmmZqYjNBjPDGIR9bGxxvHZfwoVd0qn2K0mKTJRAqR52FBDzEUfTNA/s1600/DSC_2823.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpVUaivGgyagpi7Zx9hgepgwhCK39dNHtAWbLHGllEfqhALMo-ON2EhJT4s2r6TzMjCVSA7eC7jN6c_XlxWlAAOJmmZqYjNBjPDGIR9bGxxvHZfwoVd0qn2K0mKTJRAqR52FBDzEUfTNA/s400/DSC_2823.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Looking over from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Court">Italian Court</a> (formerly the HQ of the central mint) towards the St. Barbara Cathedral and the Jesuit College, which now houses the <a href="http://www.gask.cz/en">GASK gallery of modern art</a>. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In terms of world history, <span style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutn%C3%A1_Hora">Kutná Hora</a> is probably most significant for its role as a medieval silver mining town that was one of the wealthiest cities in Europe and minted silver </span><i style="text-align: left;">groschen </i><span style="text-align: left;">for all of Bohemia. We took a tour of the mines--hard had, white coat, lamp and all, which reminded me a lot of the <a href="http://paytonsalgotarjan.blogspot.cz/2008/03/mining-museum.html">Mining Museum I went to when I went on a "math team exchange" junior year of high school</a> with a school in </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=salgotarjan&ie=UTF8&hnear=Salg%C3%B3tarj%C3%A1n,+Hungary&t=m&z=11">Salgótarján</a></em><span style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=salgotarjan&ie=UTF8&hnear=Salg%C3%B3tarj%C3%A1n,+Hungary&t=m&z=11">, Hungary</a>. At one point, our guide had us turn off our lamps to simulate the limited amount of light the miners would have had; answer: minimal (they identified silver ore by smell and sound). Then she turned off her lamp, too, to show us what would have happened if the miner ran out of fuel (ie: animal fat) for his candle--a darkness so black that we couldn't even see our hands in front of our eyes! Photo by Larissa Szyszka.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Looking out at the Italian Court from the courtyard outside of St. Barbara's Cathedral. The Italian Court is designed in "old gothic" style architecture, in contrast to... </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Barbara's_Church,_Kutn%C3%A1_Hora">St. Barbara's Cathedral</a>, which is "new gothic"--it has many more frills, and huge flying buttresses.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">All of the pews in St. Barbara's Cathedral are bookended with handcarved designs/images, none of which is identical to any of the others. This guy was one of my favorites. It took more than 5 centuries (yes, 500 years!) to build this church--they started in 1388, and didn't put on the final touches until 1905. Thanks, Wikipedia.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Although the stained glass was bright and beautiful from the inside, I found it much more interesting from the outside. What was cool from the inside was being able to walk in the "attic," above the vaulted chapels, and to see how those were constructed. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Some of the gargoyles on the sides of the St. Barbara Cathedral. When I see things like this, I forget that I'm not actually back at school, though <a href="http://www.universitypressclub.com/archive/2012/04/hide-and-seek-with-princeton-gargoyles/">Princeton's gargoyles</a> are much funnier than these.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimgicXlHHrpr-eUebMsNXFYbSR7RQuAuxtj3ILPRJ0xMaOhpz15KjntwyvvIL_gna50pIGFITRVjb4quKXs0xX2gPPUY4I5H-kiZz0c_QScl84cJoWx8DPKvpxiXmlkDyPCtmzSxQbH6I/s1600/DSC_2943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimgicXlHHrpr-eUebMsNXFYbSR7RQuAuxtj3ILPRJ0xMaOhpz15KjntwyvvIL_gna50pIGFITRVjb4quKXs0xX2gPPUY4I5H-kiZz0c_QScl84cJoWx8DPKvpxiXmlkDyPCtmzSxQbH6I/s400/DSC_2943.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">With the Jesuit College and the Italian Court in the background. (Lisa, I use your <a href="http://cookieheadcookies.com/">Cookiehead Cookies</a> tote bag all the time.) Photo by <a href="http://czechwanderings.wordpress.com/">Tyler Jacobs</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">HIKING IN CESK<span style="line-height: 17.77777862548828px;">Ý</span> KRAS (Sunday):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last Saturday, a group from my program went on a hike to the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps?q=karlstejn+castle&hl=en&sll=49.945476,14.210129&sspn=0.239933,0.676346&dirflg=w&hq=karlstejn+castle&t=m&z=11">Karlštejn Castle</a>, only a short train ride outside of the city. I couldn't go <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/history/undergraduate/info_for_majors/">(thanks, JP!</a>), but the <a href="http://czechwanderings.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/karlstejn-kutna-hora-the-zoo/">pictures that friends put up</a> looked beautiful. So when I saw that the <a href="http://www.ic-cuni.cz/">International Club at Charles University</a> was organizing a 12 mile hike culminating at the castle for this weekend, I signed up immediately. It was a little intimidating to decide to go on a trip with a club at a university I'm not actually part of, but I was sure I'd meet some great new people and it had been way too long since I'd gone hiking. When I got to the train station there were lots of people hanging out in groups of twos and threes; luckily, three girls in the film studies track of my program had seen my post in our group and decided to come along, too, so we gravitated towards each other.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">As soon as we set out on the trail, I knew that I'd made a good decision. All over the place was proof that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuMLpdnOjY">spring is (finally) upon us</a>!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Some pretty vines crawling across the wall. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmdOXzJJBkMeSUHiC84s2r-LXApaIlq26d63aSUm3MVMPo1uzsNXLFNyLLNrStGmzoHGt4wH4otrupfGs4BHwh-7CoDIKdBNHn8UJQmR2FM6YoeeGWR84P_k09q5vkTpXMUROJysLL9eQ/s1600/DSC_2976.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmdOXzJJBkMeSUHiC84s2r-LXApaIlq26d63aSUm3MVMPo1uzsNXLFNyLLNrStGmzoHGt4wH4otrupfGs4BHwh-7CoDIKdBNHn8UJQmR2FM6YoeeGWR84P_k09q5vkTpXMUROJysLL9eQ/s400/DSC_2976.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I think my favorite thing about the route of our hike was that there was a great balance of walking through forests and walking in or near villages and towns. It's nice to see what non-Prague Czech Republic looks like, and this town seems to be a pretty good representation, based on my small sample size of <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2013/03/velky-drevic-weekend-in-czech-polish.html">Zuzana's village</a> and...well, nothing else, really. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXMz5mKXA0tVsfHvedvIj0tvpudO2TrwN4FPL2PQZwdMXxeze2Kwpe_l1lOA5qMs-xwW57BPL4Ckl5tLggWsutUahvGvGSL7rnIHVpV3Sjlpq8EHw2P5oBgOswJbm1QVdY4SkG8u6yew0/s1600/DSC_3000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXMz5mKXA0tVsfHvedvIj0tvpudO2TrwN4FPL2PQZwdMXxeze2Kwpe_l1lOA5qMs-xwW57BPL4Ckl5tLggWsutUahvGvGSL7rnIHVpV3Sjlpq8EHw2P5oBgOswJbm1QVdY4SkG8u6yew0/s400/DSC_3000.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I really know nothing about this canyon/gorge (name, location, etc.) except that it's beautiful. After we left the gorge, we continued in the direction we had been going, but every few minutes our leaders stopped and pulled out their maps. As an <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/index.shtml">OA leader</a>--and just in general as a person with common sense--I had a feeling we were a little lost. A few miles back we'd seen a sign with "Karlštejn" written on it, pointing the other direction, and sure enough when we turned around we headed almost right back to where the sign had been. Turns out we weren't really lost, though--going to the gorge had been an intentional loop in the trail, but we'd gotten a bit turned around finding the correct path back after the view.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfPvfAOBqqj6LPJ9cAwlBEZv6BdpZQwm8PjmJ-FyV_9mrfrbCEI_wQY6AamqKWdwErLiHGoA_YLckvt_cBCy0BsGlLN41RPpwuz1xddVgaVHdxex_y1dU6gkmvHuB6f5Jnh5np-qs4X1A/s1600/Nicole_6girls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfPvfAOBqqj6LPJ9cAwlBEZv6BdpZQwm8PjmJ-FyV_9mrfrbCEI_wQY6AamqKWdwErLiHGoA_YLckvt_cBCy0BsGlLN41RPpwuz1xddVgaVHdxex_y1dU6gkmvHuB6f5Jnh5np-qs4X1A/s400/Nicole_6girls.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I met some lovely people! Sophia (left), <a href="http://www.dancingshutter.com/">Nicole</a> ("BADD" hat), and Kacey (sunglasses in the back) are students in the film (Sophia and Kacey) and photography (Nicole) tracks of my program. Here we're with two of our new friends, from Portugal (next to me) and Hungary (in the front). Photo courtesy of Nicole Lewis.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQMy6CVeon6M2ImCItAmccH3HMZC4Ac16SQ_N4msCWsJrLQOLzd5IIeGp01brOSp7dqzgP6NIvUQchb25QHbjS9EoconlE_6vk8EOQMUhycdsUNV8iX_HNxFdgPn8bBfznmmaZQ4RI9I/s1600/DSC_3028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQMy6CVeon6M2ImCItAmccH3HMZC4Ac16SQ_N4msCWsJrLQOLzd5IIeGp01brOSp7dqzgP6NIvUQchb25QHbjS9EoconlE_6vk8EOQMUhycdsUNV8iX_HNxFdgPn8bBfznmmaZQ4RI9I/s400/DSC_3028.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There it is: the <a href="http://www.hradkarlstejn.cz/history/">Karlštejn Castle</a>! Named for King Charles IV, obviously, and built in 1348. We didn't do a tour of the inside, but I hear there's not much there, anyway. On the final stretch of the hike leading up to the castle, I ended up walking with a French medical student who I gave a Judaism 101 Crash Course too. She was very curious and, having grown up in a very agnostic family, knew very little about Christianity, too. It was really interesting to try to explain things to someone without even a basic knowledge of terminology (although she did know "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPw0vUuPjbw">kippah</a>"--watch at least a few seconds of that one, you won't be disappointed). I had to explain the Rabbi as "sort of our version of a priest, but not." I think it's the first time that I've been the first Jew a person has met, and although I was often looked to in high school <a href="http://www.frumsatire.net/2011/03/16/strange-orthodox-jewish-beliefs-and-customs/">to explain the wierd things we sometimes do</a>, it was strange to be someone's sole source of information on Judaism. I hope I managed to present Judaism positively while also giving honest explanations...and hopefully not making up too many things. I really enjoyed talking with her, and we had a really honest conversation about spirituality, which was wonderful--<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_in_the_Woods">hiking is the best time for those conversations</a>, I think.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg75LPrgzeo04uSlH0H7zb5Rq_CQ7NsyYRAmnfZZmCQhBnB7F2M-4VUaXepurtfDmQ-Fupefk1pjQ6Ras9E2PKy10TmbbtGXIRxmk8iOCFEsKmSUFk0F4bVIRkVT6cZ3-0_Nim9QGX5Ojg/s1600/Nicole_AbbyCastle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg75LPrgzeo04uSlH0H7zb5Rq_CQ7NsyYRAmnfZZmCQhBnB7F2M-4VUaXepurtfDmQ-Fupefk1pjQ6Ras9E2PKy10TmbbtGXIRxmk8iOCFEsKmSUFk0F4bVIRkVT6cZ3-0_Nim9QGX5Ojg/s400/Nicole_AbbyCastle.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Me with the castle, and so happy that the weather was so beautiful :) Photo by <a href="http://dancingshutter.blogspot.cz/">Nicole Lewis</a>, a photography student at the San Francisco Art Institute who is studying in Prague this semester. You can see more of her work on her website: <a href="http://www.dancingshutter.com/">http://www.dancingshutter.com/</a></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghudOnSdvYv71v8GCIpPXkUSABoXBptePVbVtaGAuGOu_71TDTQaf9S9Tra9Lrbbp7G8tT1Ibct44heN7pvKdVxNVBSrcs8CxYk0shy8l8CqYspGv7DfMLKumuhe64ozKM5Ki7l7k7mRo/s1600/Nicole_groupshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghudOnSdvYv71v8GCIpPXkUSABoXBptePVbVtaGAuGOu_71TDTQaf9S9Tra9Lrbbp7G8tT1Ibct44heN7pvKdVxNVBSrcs8CxYk0shy8l8CqYspGv7DfMLKumuhe64ozKM5Ki7l7k7mRo/s400/Nicole_groupshot.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Here's the whole group of hikers. It's easy to spot me--I'm next to the woman in the bright blue pullover (she's from Finland, and does capoeira). Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.dancingshutter.com/">Nicole Lewis</a>. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEituD2S1x4TQifqMdzzMmDSychj6l9W26lBKEYAVO_G6fcmjBsJ4CboMoFmloYSLT5tQQlKxDkzadDycP09a4-cZsFmVn7dgAPqmS2jS_rxqk2IADMLymUtxOXDTlkhqhNQwFH0-2fs3kk/s1600/DSC_3064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEituD2S1x4TQifqMdzzMmDSychj6l9W26lBKEYAVO_G6fcmjBsJ4CboMoFmloYSLT5tQQlKxDkzadDycP09a4-cZsFmVn7dgAPqmS2jS_rxqk2IADMLymUtxOXDTlkhqhNQwFH0-2fs3kk/s400/DSC_3064.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Kacey, Nicole, Sophia and I headed back to the train a bit early and had the chance to walk through the town which was only a little too touristy. We walked into a couple great bazaars, and drooled over all the food stands. When we passed this guy, making sweet crepes, we couldn't resist. The flavors looked incredible, but I was mostly intrigued by his impressively meticulous gestures for making the crepes. Look, he's using a squeegee to spread the batter over the perfectly circular griddle! We got strawberry and nutella filling in ours.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Once the blue decided to poke through the clouds, the river made for a pretty mirror. It was a great final view of the town before we got on the train back to Prague.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although it's not related to Kutná Hora or Karlštejn, I tell you a little about my day yesterday, since it was the first time the weather was really perfect. I woke up to a blue sky, put on my brand new leather "<a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2011/08/delicious-kunafa-and-rooftop-wanderings.html">Jesus sandals</a>" I got in <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2013/04/isru-chague-on-prague-blague.html">Israel</a>, had a couple hours of class, met up with a friend to work on our JPs, listening to a street musician play hard, played nerf-ball catch in the park at sunset. On my walk home I happened upon the most incredible, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html">Joshua Bell-esque</a> "<a href="http://pmmj.jmm.cz/NDvideo.html">street pianist</a>" (later found out it's <a href="http://pmmj.jmm.cz/"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Peter M<span style="background-color: white;">ešo</span></span></a>, apparently a huge Michael Jackson junkie) playing "anything you wish" pieces on the piano just outside the entrance to <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2013/02/playing-catch-up-bohemian-carnevale.html">Old Town</a>--after 10 minutes of listening I asked him to play Smetana's "<a href="http://youtu.be/kdtLuyWuPDs?t=59s">Vltava</a>" so that I could sort of hear a live version of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDZfl4iqsCY">Hatikva</a> on <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/yomhaatzmaut.html">Yom HaAtzmaut</a> and then stayed for another 30 minutes just listening. When I continued walking, I ran into a woman who looked lost; after passing her I turned around, asked if she needed help, and ended up walking her all the way back to her hostel because it was sort of in the same direction as my apartment--and found out that there are two great flea markets/bazaars right near where she's staying! <span style="line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Good weather clearly has such an impact on peoples' actions. Serendipity :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">As a final note: When I came home from yesterday's events, I was shocked to hear about the<span style="color: #37404e;"> </span><a href="http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/15/explosions-rock-boston-marathon-finish-line-dozens-injured/yLhfDT1XC3HXSa8wPiVijL/story.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">two bombs that exploded at the finish-line of the Boston Marathon</span></a><span style="color: #37404e;">. </span>Thanks to the efforts of runners, volunteers, EMTs, firefighters, policemen, Twitter, Google, and many individual people, help and information were dispensed efficiently. I don't think this is the right forum to make any commentary on the attack, so I'll just leave this at hoping to contribute to creating a world where things like this don't happen. </span></div>
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<br />Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Czech Republic49.817491999999987 15.47296200000005247.179693999999984 10.287415000000053 52.455289999999991 20.658509000000052tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-33997237263709902862013-04-05T18:08:00.003-05:002013-04-08T10:13:07.699-05:00Isru Chag(ue) on the Prague Blague*<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Passover began for me months ago, when I first started to think about going abroad for the semester. When I spoke with a friend from Chicago who had also spent a semester in Prague, one of the first things I asked her was how feasible keeping Passover was going to be. She assured me that there would be food. There was, though certainly nothing like the quantity available in most urban supermarkets in the States. A 1 pound box of matzah costs $5 here, as do packages of kosher-for-Passover cheese and chocolate bars. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So instead of making myself eat cheese slices on matzah all week, with a some boiled potatoes for variety, I went to Israel to visit Naomi. Both Gideon and I were lucky enough to have relatives visit us during our gap years in Israel (for Gideon: Grandma Helene, Grandpa Bernie, and Uncle Danny; for me: <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2010/04/big-relative-week.html">Grandma Helene, Aunt Emily</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1185383391619&set=fp.1139280396.1156650460&type=1&theater">Gideon</a>), so this visit made sure Naomi got some family time in, also. Since she's been awful at communicating this year (ahem!), this post will function as a semi-update on her life, too. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyk6bqCkS7xZuM7YSNkh2AuW_XGyfBxFDhLjz19ay0kFNZdiStyjl5Mw_fnuuSPPIzuLVvC05djlZQcjOeHo7BghUpS4yEWfM5XGV_5cBlvEacnHqT-iMAQGlYq2vxtRY2bruTpPY1sx8/s1600/IMG_4881.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyk6bqCkS7xZuM7YSNkh2AuW_XGyfBxFDhLjz19ay0kFNZdiStyjl5Mw_fnuuSPPIzuLVvC05djlZQcjOeHo7BghUpS4yEWfM5XGV_5cBlvEacnHqT-iMAQGlYq2vxtRY2bruTpPY1sx8/s400/IMG_4881.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I went to seders hosted by the <a href="http://masortiprague.cz/index.php?page=default&lng=en">Masorti (Conservative) Community</a> both nights, held at the home of Shumi (pictured on the left). On the first night I missed Eliyahu's visit, as per usual (but the crowd gave a round of applause when he left!), but on the second night I managed to catch a glimpse. There were about 60 people crammed into Shumi's living room each night--a combination of locals, study abroad students, and visiting families. Gaby and Alyssa (<a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2013/02/100-purim-comes-to-prague.html">pictured in the Purim post</a>) and I sat with two brothers and their mom who were passing through Prague, and the post-seder singing we did made it feel a lot more like home. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On Thursday night I headed to the airport, and my flight arrived in Israel at 4:15 am. Somehow, I completely missed daylight savings time everywhere--Prague changed the clocks while I was in Israel, and Israel changed the clocks while I was in the air. <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2011/07/good-summary-of-how-wonderful-my.html">Galya</a> (woah, I'm wearing the same shirt in these pictures) came to pick me up because her Kibbutz is 10 minutes away from the airport, and we went to sleep immediately upon our arrival at her Kibbutz. But when we woke up we made matzah pizza (in a microwave) and salad (in a bucket, because there were no big K-for-P dishes), in typical Abby And Galya fashion. We continued the day in Tel Aviv, and then I went to Jerusalem to meet Naomi.<br /><br />Little did I know that Galya and my friend Ariel (back row,far right in the next picture) had spoken, and Ariel was waiting for me at the bus station! [Sidenote for <a href="http://osrui.urjcamps.org/">OSRUI</a> friends: <a href="http://osrui.urjcamps.org/staff/preview/">Ariel is on the mishlachat</a> for this summer as media specialist.] Which was good, because I couldn't remember how to walk from there to my friend Amir's house, where I was staying. Apparently, Ariel couldn't either and we got a bit lost--luckily, we ran into Naomi who was walking around carrying her map. Naomi and I had a wonderful Shabbat dinner at the home of a family I met a month ago in Prague on Purim, and lunch with the Kochins (all 6 of them!) the next day before hanging out with friends from her Midrasha. [Since around October, Naomi was a member of the first year of <a href="http://www.midrasha.info/">Midreshet HaShiluv</a>, a program for Israelis deferring the military service for a year in order to study Jewish texts. Uniquely, the Midrasha is coed, and has both religious and secular participants. It's located, temporarily, at <a href="http://www.mevohama.org.il/Site/pages/inPage.asp?catID=110">Kibbutz Mevo Hama</a>, on the <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mevo+Hama&hl=en&ll=32.736462,35.656128&spn=1.25448,2.705383&safe=off&geocode=Fb2F8wEdJw4gAg&hnear=Mevo+Hama&t=m&z=9">southeastern part of the Sea of Galilee</a>, so Naomi got to do a lot of nice hiking up there. And despite what Facebook might say: no, it's not in Syria, don't worry.]</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfrpFUqsHPkcJoPUBz7qwb0kS91jpEQcVMtegprrvDb8POy0mLtS5Y1xh4KA5LzUETkNJnATIA9Fb0JDxRe2170AeHe8Cl7KdG9V4dMQpncuwS9BnXOFHsiQ_zbkvbctovJyExvftqe88/s1600/IMG_4912.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfrpFUqsHPkcJoPUBz7qwb0kS91jpEQcVMtegprrvDb8POy0mLtS5Y1xh4KA5LzUETkNJnATIA9Fb0JDxRe2170AeHe8Cl7KdG9V4dMQpncuwS9BnXOFHsiQ_zbkvbctovJyExvftqe88/s400/IMG_4912.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">With friends from my gap year at <a href="http://m-nachshon.org/?CategoryID=174&dbsRW=1">Mechinat</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Ucj1fMVGI">Nachshon</a>! It's hard to believe that I haven't seen any of these folks (with the exception of Shani, who visited me at Princeton) in two years! The great thing about Israel is that everything is kosher...even on Passover. So we met up at T<a href="http://www.tmol-shilshom.co.il/en/pages/default.aspx?ContentID=23">mol Shilshom</a>, one of my favorite cafes in Jerusalem. It was so wonderful to see everyone and to get a chance to catch up. חבר'ה, תודה רבה שבאתם. מאוד שמח אותי לראות את כולכם, ואני מקווה שכשתבוא לארה"ב הדבר הראשון שתעשו יהיה להרים אליי טלפון. כי אין מצב שלא נפגשים...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sunday afternoon, Naomi and I met up with some friends of mine at a spring on the outskirts of Jerusalem called <a href="http://www.hamaayanot.co.il/home/?page=4&mayan=253710">Ayn Sapir</a>. When it came time to jump in (it was hot!), I counted to three and ducked under. Naomi, on the other hand, pulled that nasty trick that big kids do to little kids and pretended to go under but didn't actually. "I already showered today," she said. And then corrected herself: "I already showered this week." (In Israel, every drop of water counts, right?)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ_QpITWnlYx_Y-xbzpYiSPpcvY7KzcG1SDpSf7Oz1KUZgPUUdGPdd4dwd5GIpvPmZyyd3pySh90khBHl-n80luYxJo6DnRQ5P_INNYgWK5JTiBseaT9zDvZfzy5pCPZzg_Lw5oMhSYaM/s1600/DSC_2592.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ_QpITWnlYx_Y-xbzpYiSPpcvY7KzcG1SDpSf7Oz1KUZgPUUdGPdd4dwd5GIpvPmZyyd3pySh90khBHl-n80luYxJo6DnRQ5P_INNYgWK5JTiBseaT9zDvZfzy5pCPZzg_Lw5oMhSYaM/s400/DSC_2592.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sunday I went to stay with my friend Ofir in Haifa. This is the view from his window. We actually didn't end up spending much time in Haifa because one of our friends from the Mechina had been in a car accident in the army and was in the hospital, so we drove down to visit him. Incredibly, despite three broken vertebrae, he's doing fantastically and has full range of motion in all his limbs! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Oh, and since Passover ends a day earlier in Israel than it does everywhere else in the world, I got to break Passover in Haifa on a delicious sandwich whose contents I'm still not quite sure of.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPbeg5cx9wphY2HW_ZrBFbIDUDMKZYm2uJxGt4jPIVITi2x9owc1JqWlDoqtm45CIoUSu_tcE_81tn2BhzY-4rFYaF2-OAwQyv4AhmIJgwwN4lgVHuD0El8wLQ3jh28AKl8fwHMGEJsYA/s1600/DSC_2601.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPbeg5cx9wphY2HW_ZrBFbIDUDMKZYm2uJxGt4jPIVITi2x9owc1JqWlDoqtm45CIoUSu_tcE_81tn2BhzY-4rFYaF2-OAwQyv4AhmIJgwwN4lgVHuD0El8wLQ3jh28AKl8fwHMGEJsYA/s400/DSC_2601.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isru_chag">Isru chag</a>*: Abby and Naomi bike around <a href="http://greenmap.org.il/content?lang=he&pageid=49">bike routes in Jerusalem</a> currently under construction, which will eventually create a <a href="http://www.touristisrael.com/yam-lyam-hike/5621/">Yam L'Yam</a> bike path (from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea), and will also connect Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, the paths aren't finished yet, and we had to turn back at the end of this section, but thanks to Naomi's handy-dandy bike map, we found some sections that were rideable, though still unpaved, and got in a good deal of wandering around parts of the city I'd never been to. The bike Naomi's riding is one she bought at the beginning of the year from someone in Tel Aviv; the one I rode belongs to the family she's been living with in Jerusalem for the past three weeks during the interim between the end of the Midreshet Hashiluv program and the beginning of the <a href="http://www.midreshet-lindenbaum.org.il/">Midreshet Lindenbaum</a> program which she starts next week. Itai is a good friend of hers from the first Midrasha, and she's taken over the loft bed and one of the shelves in his room, and even has a key to the house! He's in the army most of the time now, anyway...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I just really liked this contrast.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Outside Ayn Yael, another spring close to the <a href="http://www.jerusalemzoo.org.il/len/">Jerusalem Biblical Zoo</a>. The gate was locked, but Naomi and I had a nice adventure there anyway. I'm not sure what she's using to pick her nose with, but nearby was another plant whose name I forgot that she kept peeling and eating; apparently, you can make pies out of them. I guess living near the Kinneret and doing lots of hikes teaches you about the edible plants!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxroyZPwD4ZZxMLs-Lw1CgWEgLGrOWbaVhXXTbZPEbtzKo4R2FfDTAEQcJ52PAAtqXgSyLoVCLhEJNqBX9NyILhuUAMtxsnN64crJFmZJdlHSLlM42RJYyK9MkV9VAtwJtzoxqlJC61s/s1600/DSC_2654.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxroyZPwD4ZZxMLs-Lw1CgWEgLGrOWbaVhXXTbZPEbtzKo4R2FfDTAEQcJ52PAAtqXgSyLoVCLhEJNqBX9NyILhuUAMtxsnN64crJFmZJdlHSLlM42RJYyK9MkV9VAtwJtzoxqlJC61s/s400/DSC_2654.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It was hot outside, so we continued our bike ride along dirt roads and ended up at this spring. I can't remember what it's called, but it's more like a pool than a spring. When we got there, it was filled with ultra-Orthodox boys/men. I told Naomi that if she jumped in, they would disperse pretty quickly...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">and they did.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">"אבי, את ישראל, man". Transliteration: "Abby, at Yisrael, man." Translation: "Abby, you are Israel, man." Okay, so it actually says "Avi" not "Abby," but they're spelled the same way in Hebrew and I like my version. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLB6-PE6AoDsT8DyalCuu-ozINXE3g_qzR3wfV1WgL1DsKMdLfa0jHU-U4DRVdJS9wRyCRQJJosA0cf6YA5_DRZcWhueTxT0fGylp3H4Tr6o61iZnvBIFBqseYPBDAgG_Ttbn7jsPZSXM/s1600/DSC_2704.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLB6-PE6AoDsT8DyalCuu-ozINXE3g_qzR3wfV1WgL1DsKMdLfa0jHU-U4DRVdJS9wRyCRQJJosA0cf6YA5_DRZcWhueTxT0fGylp3H4Tr6o61iZnvBIFBqseYPBDAgG_Ttbn7jsPZSXM/s400/DSC_2704.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Wednesday morning I had the opportunity to interview <a href="http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2008/11/05/pages/8746/index.xml#.UQ2Ann2kk3c.email">Ernest Stock, a member of Princeton's class of 1949</a>, at his home in Ramat Gan, pictured here with his wife Bracha. In 1946, six years after coordinating his family's escape from Nazi Germany, having learned English attending night school in New York City, and having served in the United States military, Stock was accepted as a sophomore at Princeton through the GI Bill. Upon his arrival, he founded the Student Hebrew Association on campus, the precursor to Hillel (now the <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/hillel/">Center for Jewish Life</a>) and the first long-lasting Jewish student organization at Princeton. For my second junior paper (and likely for my senior thesis) I am writing about the development of Jewish communal life within the student body at Princeton. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The rest of Wednesday, prior to leaving for my flight back to Prague, was a day in Tel Aviv. It was great to be back in the shuk--outdoor bazaars are something I wish were more common in America! Except these mannequins were really creepy.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Naomi, expert shuk-shopper that she is, picked out some fantastic veggies to make us lunch: avocado, tomato, cucumber, red pepper, onion...plus some zaatar bread to go with it, and a handful of strawberries for dessert. Once we got to the beach (five minutes away), we sat down for some lunch and a dip in the sea. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There she goes! This girl brings her bathing suit everywhere.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you look closely, you can see the Chaco's tan line that I got after only 5 days in the sun. Czech Republic, step up your game! Let's get some shining sun and warm weather happening. (And yes, I finally succeeded in getting a new pair of "<a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2011/08/delicious-kunafa-and-rooftop-wanderings.html">Jesus sandles</a>" to replace my beloved broken ones).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWV_clkHXcbQHFosHS9QxEwQ8IQOP8c8Mz2N-jG0MosrZj4KVLY6K24YZnJrFh3wGdOrz33_sj1vh9MK7JuIPavBgw4QSyUCJ4I_Y9HotzASUz1qj0xH-6li6R4-Df74d8OStZVZA_M-U/s1600/IMG_4921.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWV_clkHXcbQHFosHS9QxEwQ8IQOP8c8Mz2N-jG0MosrZj4KVLY6K24YZnJrFh3wGdOrz33_sj1vh9MK7JuIPavBgw4QSyUCJ4I_Y9HotzASUz1qj0xH-6li6R4-Df74d8OStZVZA_M-U/s400/IMG_4921.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Coming full circle: Masaryk St. in Jerusalem. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1%C5%A1_Garrigue_Masaryk">Thomas Garrigue Masaryk</a> was the first president of independent Czechoslovakia, and was really good to the Jews. The restaurant on the corner of this street is called "Masaryk Italian Restaurant." Oops.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">*Danny, here's your footnote. Thanks for having us over for tea, it was lovely!</span></div>
Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Israel31.046051 34.85161199999993227.5588435 29.710010499999932 34.533258499999995 39.993213499999932tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-6583951228319042582013-03-23T15:22:00.005-05:002013-04-07T09:28:42.580-05:00A Week in Poland: Krakow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Warsaw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As many of you know, I was in Poland this past week with my program. Though I tried to pare this post down to include the bare minimum number of photographs while still doing the week justice, there are a lot. I'll try to keep the captions succinct. The post is divided down into three sections corresponding to the three places in Poland where we spent the week. Before I begin, I should mention that most of the best things that I saw and did while in Poland were thanks to suggestions from Ricky, who spent two consecutive summers there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">KRAKOW:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Krakow is a city more like what I was expecting Prague to be--and what Prague was until about 10 years ago, apparently. It's sort of halfway between now and post-Communism, with lots of Communist remnants (dilapidated buildings, etc.) still visible around the city. But it also surprised me in terms of how much I liked it. It's roughly the same size as Boston population-wise, and felt kind of similar in a way I can't quite describe. Although Kazimierz--the Jewish quarter--kind of put me on edge because it felt like a lot of it was not authentic (ie: restaurants with Hebrew-style fonts, that serve entirely non-Kosher menus), the rest of the city was a fantastic mix of urban grunge and modern developments trying to fit together.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitd7KGgf71UbfpavFblPQreW1_THGIP5IBE6tGiijpeyS437QhPyMXZlPsfV4TUJfH8s8358Hvv-qNQ7J10wtb64QnD-XnvoPt_uqHRPnUqFc3bwKZbXxIr0t-_BxvkTkQ10AYSd9yXYQ/s1600/DSC_1696.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitd7KGgf71UbfpavFblPQreW1_THGIP5IBE6tGiijpeyS437QhPyMXZlPsfV4TUJfH8s8358Hvv-qNQ7J10wtb64QnD-XnvoPt_uqHRPnUqFc3bwKZbXxIr0t-_BxvkTkQ10AYSd9yXYQ/s400/DSC_1696.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In front of the Wawel Castle. It was built in the 1300s. Although we passed by it on our tour the night before, it was dark and cold then and I wasn't really paying attention to where it was relative to our hotel. So when I left a souvenir shop in the morning and found myself looking directly at the castle, I decided it was a good time to walk around there.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There were a couple of pictures that actually included the entirety of the clocktower, but this one includes the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Ko%C5%9Bciuszko_Monument,_Krak%C3%B3w">monument to <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">Tadeusz Kościuszko</span></a> (the horse statue in the background). Since he helped America win the Revolution, and apparently there's a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Ko%C5%9Bciuszko">monument to him in Chicago</a> too, I figured I'd use this picture.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good thing the internet exists; I just looked up what the deal is with this sculpture. Although it's often referred to simply as "The Head," it's title is actually "Eros Bendato" and it's a sculpture by the Polish-German artist Igor Mitoraj. Apparently it was really controversial when it was first placed next to the Town Hall in Krakow's Old Town Square in the early 2000s (in the background you can see the old market building and the top of St. Mary's Cathedral). Now, though, it's mostly a tourist attraction: yes, I picked his nose, and yes, I crawled around inside the head.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51f9uEYGeKw">Well, I was wandering along on the streets of Old Town/When a legion of soldiers came marching by, uh-huh...</a> But really, I was just exploring some of the side streets near Old Town in the area of Jagiellonian University and all of a sudden there was a pack of at least thirty soldiers (I'm assuming) in full-on winter weather soldier gear. In the back right corner of their pack, there was a blonde woman with curled hair and a fancy cream-colored dress. I have no idea why they were there or where they were going, but I switched directions and followed them for about 10 minutes (and had a stranger take this covert picture of me with them in the background).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary's_Basilica,_Krak%C3%B3w">St. Mary's Cathedral</a> has the most beautiful interior of any church I've ever seen, and I've been to cathedrals in Rome, Florence, Jerusalem, and other cities. Unfortunately, you can't go to the top of the clock tower in winter, but luckily Ricky tipped me off that it was a place worth visiting, otherwise I wouldn't have gone. I don't think I've ever seen such an ornate church--each side chapel (I'm not sure if they have a special name) is worth looking at from an artistic perspective. On our tour the previous night, we learned that a trumpeter announces each hour, but that his call is cut off in the middle--allegedly because in the middle ages the trumpet player was shot in the throat in the middle of one of the notes.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Although most Jews lived concentrated in the Kazimierz area of Krakow before the War, the Nazis forced them into a new ghetto that they created in Podgorze, on the other side of the river. This square, <span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">Plac Bohaterów Getta</span><b style="background-color: white; color: indigo; text-align: justify;">,</b> is where they were rounded up before being sent to death camps--the chairs are a memorial erected in 2005 meant to represent the lone pieces of luggage and furniture that were left after the liquidation of the ghetto--each chair represents 1000 victims. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In the back right corner of the picture you see a stage. The stage is next to what was the Apteka Pod Or<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.265625px; text-align: left;">ł</span>em (the Pharmacy Under the Eagle)--the only business owned by a non-Jew that the Nazis allowed to remain open in the Jewish ghetto. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Pankiewicz">Tadeusz Pankiewicz</a> was awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations for the work he did providing medications and hair dye (to help the gray-haired looked younger) to Jews in the ghetto. The stage is set up for a musical celebration of the <a href="http://www.krakowpost.com/article/6400">reopening of the pharmacy to visitors</a>, on the 70th anniversary of the ghetto liquidation. Unfortunately, I misread a notice so I showed up hours before the opening and wasn't able to get back for the actual opening.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-HM9BsY2_zhxnK_SXH4i_EogsWJV8uHiRibqj7M_6SV9XurGqsPoUy9i3CN1oDtKm4fcaXii5cyfIHJlcMYpoton9fuPKxAaU5fdTl4Or5uPOkeyUFf690BGzluAC3by2U6DMy4z_Ds/s1600/DSC_1371.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-HM9BsY2_zhxnK_SXH4i_EogsWJV8uHiRibqj7M_6SV9XurGqsPoUy9i3CN1oDtKm4fcaXii5cyfIHJlcMYpoton9fuPKxAaU5fdTl4Or5uPOkeyUFf690BGzluAC3by2U6DMy4z_Ds/s400/DSC_1371.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Only a fragment of the former ghetto walls remains standing. They were designed to look like gravestones. I can imagine that it's strange to live in the apartments behind the ghetto wall today.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKTxB_7vCxiF1b0qRU4db4DGdsAIcZmCet8v0BTwnPBs76I83XmNyFt6dQW_LVDOR29-Ue4EN056xOdwhTPFvdJ0rvAE4dtetXLwQ_j-SkpAJmAyQvijoJ7PYETTvyR7-rNVaVbWWgZFU/s1600/DSC_1181.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKTxB_7vCxiF1b0qRU4db4DGdsAIcZmCet8v0BTwnPBs76I83XmNyFt6dQW_LVDOR29-Ue4EN056xOdwhTPFvdJ0rvAE4dtetXLwQ_j-SkpAJmAyQvijoJ7PYETTvyR7-rNVaVbWWgZFU/s400/DSC_1181.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the detail of the recently-restored ceiling on the <a href="http://www.jewishkrakow.net/en/see/remuh-synagogue/">Remuh Synagogue</a>, which was originally built in the 1550s. It's named for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Isserles">Rabbi Moshe Isserles</a>, who penned a new accompaniment to the Shulchan Aruch. The Rema (Prominent rabbis are often referred to by the acronyms of their initials) must have had a good sense of humor: he names his commentary of the Shulchan Aruch (literally "the set table") the "mapah" (literally: tablecloth).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnbRkcffVtDOQyY2k_egxgeAGi1IDFVbmLjUeVOWR5Elt5K6ZbhH8SMNf64qd81XBktTipyI9nn9b7wU2gaLpZgfaiXZkCFf3Ks-KbgDPsj39Qi4lFeYlRL0v0BUIiwfBGhmE0dQzkII0/s1600/DSC_1220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnbRkcffVtDOQyY2k_egxgeAGi1IDFVbmLjUeVOWR5Elt5K6ZbhH8SMNf64qd81XBktTipyI9nn9b7wU2gaLpZgfaiXZkCFf3Ks-KbgDPsj39Qi4lFeYlRL0v0BUIiwfBGhmE0dQzkII0/s400/DSC_1220.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Next to the Remuh Synagogue is the Old Jewish Cemetery (where Rabbi Moshe Isserles is buried). Though I did take a picture of his grave, I thought this was a more interested glimpse of the cemetery. After WWII, the cemetery was not in very good shape, to say the least. Lots of people came to help restore the cemetery, and in order to preserve the memory of those whose stones were broken and with missing parts, they put them together to create the walls oft he cemetery.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsBTsZLqojMBiHWBxAOOIPVjqKO65LLeTuNgKqPvUR95kRVgeCEdVDYlR1NorVBAuUn12NzcQIzsfnefpTubUL49TFxJbc4IkItfRMOa9STnRCuqlhwb1ayhgwX7OJklhF5uR9p-ZwNw/s1600/DSC_1264.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsBTsZLqojMBiHWBxAOOIPVjqKO65LLeTuNgKqPvUR95kRVgeCEdVDYlR1NorVBAuUn12NzcQIzsfnefpTubUL49TFxJbc4IkItfRMOa9STnRCuqlhwb1ayhgwX7OJklhF5uR9p-ZwNw/s400/DSC_1264.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the interior of the Tempel Synagogue, which was a Reform shul built in the style of the Vienna Reform synagogues in the mid-1800s. It's only used as a shul a few times a year. The ceiling was amazingly ornate, but you'll have to wait for the Facebook album to see pictures (or just Google it).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The ceiling detail of the Kupa Synagogue, built in the 17th century. There are "frames" for a number of Biblical cities and scenes, and the chandelier (again: wait for the Facebook album) is comprised of a number of intersecting menorahs, which is really cool. We went to Kabbalat Shabbat services here on Friday night. From the balcony (because women sit in the balcony) I saw a stream of probably 50-60 boys walk in and it became clear very quickly that there were a couple yeshivas in Poland for the week. As soon as I'd convinced myself that I wouldn't know anyone because they were all Naomi's age, who should walk in but Kolya--one of Millie Miller's grandsons, and the brother of my best friend from grade school! I managed to catch him after services before the groups split for dinner, and it was so nice to catch up, even only for a few minutes. Who would have imagined that we'd run into each other in Poland, of all places!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">(I should note that this was the second time I'd run into someone I knew, and we'd only been in Poland for three days. Two kids who I'd met at Purim happened to be staying in the same hotel as us in Krakow!)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our day started with a bus ride from Krakow to Auschwitz and, like I wrote about the ride to Terezin, it was hard not to wonder what was going through the minds of Jewish families packed into cattle cars as they took the exact same route. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Going to see the camps outside of a Jewish context was a very strange experience. Although many of the other kids on my program are Jewish, and I am on the Jewish Studies "track" of my program, it is by no means a Jewish environment--I hope that that nuance will be clear through what I write here. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCqo6oV0S0USe_AItekwNuroDmHCOUav3gOrRBUWo0SBfJ85VAHQYqcX2-erfeSqWSt8Rpdzn-p_6Rz6lZpeXXpG0FrdZdwoLCs4p6Sq9tPA6RN61sT-NBdzDTVm4mEGt0OnSWcxAf_ak/s1600/DSC_1759.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCqo6oV0S0USe_AItekwNuroDmHCOUav3gOrRBUWo0SBfJ85VAHQYqcX2-erfeSqWSt8Rpdzn-p_6Rz6lZpeXXpG0FrdZdwoLCs4p6Sq9tPA6RN61sT-NBdzDTVm4mEGt0OnSWcxAf_ak/s400/DSC_1759.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The barracks at Auschwitz have been turned into museum displays and memorials to the more than one million people murdered at Auschwitz (or its satellite camps). There are cases full of glasses, kitchen utensils, and prosthetic limbs collected from those sent to the camps. One room is filled with 2 tons of hair--hair shaved off the heads of prisoners upon their entry to the camps. Seven tons of hair were discovered in total. For me the most jarring was a register with entries of the numbers of people murdered--when I saw "numbers" I mean their tattoo identification numbers, not the quantity of people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Walking around the barracks, watching the groups of Israeli high schoolers wrapped in Israeli flags singing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ajGrQbpf8A">Vehi She'amda</a> but not being with them was hard (Vehi She'amda is a liturgical passage that appears in the Passover Haggadah, and thanks God for saving the Jewish people from the persecution that has arisen, inevitably, in each generation). Although our tour guide was excellent, the singing, to me, felt more like what I should be doing, and I found myself singing the words quietly to myself.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH2cXJqEY3jaU_Ki8PCC3vpmsvE3UksZ8R-bxGq31dGjThA1HVmC01QLBa79Q8mGHqjSOZTviskFqIlDm08k-kNcO9XHixAXeId2oh_3Sbqm7OV1bZM8UK1ekL-9gv5TGOtP1crtYnaSU/s1600/DSC_1788.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH2cXJqEY3jaU_Ki8PCC3vpmsvE3UksZ8R-bxGq31dGjThA1HVmC01QLBa79Q8mGHqjSOZTviskFqIlDm08k-kNcO9XHixAXeId2oh_3Sbqm7OV1bZM8UK1ekL-9gv5TGOtP1crtYnaSU/s400/DSC_1788.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Looking down onto the train tracks leading into Auschwitz-Birkenau. One of the things that was stressed on this trip--and which I hadn't really thought about before--was that hundreds of thousands of non-Jews were also victims of the Nazi death camps. Ethnic Poles, Roma/Gypsies, homosexuals, individuals with disabilities, political dissidents, Communists...all were targeted by the Nazis. An interesting nuance that we talked about a lot in Krakow (perhaps more on this later) is that in America you can identify as an "American Jew' (or "Jewish American"), while in Poland your Jewish identity precludes your identity as a Pole--if you extend this analogy, then there were about 6 million Poles murdered in WWII, and half of them were Jews.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Here, too, it was hard to watch groups of Israelis walking around but not to be with them. Although we lit memorial candles at a few locations, they were memorial candles, not yahrtzeit candles. And we didn't recite <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/kaddish.html">Kaddish</a> (prayer said by mourners) at any point, which felt really strange to me. And while we really did talk a lot about the non-Jewish victims, the Jewish connection for me is still, obviously, the strongest. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGpLCa1c6hRtFWz3c91edpH47gCOjMTSWZUzDegGx-1wgMhk3tkiyr95BINNWnIMcUK3mD8vaj6FIk_xPIe56H5piTrtWf7zxnOIe16d0ZRibBLHi31tWavZEJ9grKMa2p2mbSBjPjqVQ/s1600/DSC_1856.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGpLCa1c6hRtFWz3c91edpH47gCOjMTSWZUzDegGx-1wgMhk3tkiyr95BINNWnIMcUK3mD8vaj6FIk_xPIe56H5piTrtWf7zxnOIe16d0ZRibBLHi31tWavZEJ9grKMa2p2mbSBjPjqVQ/s400/DSC_1856.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: left;">"Anti-Semitism is a sin against God and humanity," says this graffiti (or government sponsored PSA? Not sure) in Oświ</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: left;">ęcem. </span> <span style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%C5%9Bwi%C4%99cim">Oświ</a></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%C5%9Bwi%C4%99cim">ęcem</a> is </span>the town outside of Auschwitz and is a normal town with houses and schools and grocery stores. "Auschwitz" is just a Germanization of the Polish name (the <a href="http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/city/oswiecim/">Yiddish name is Oshpitzin</a>). At the <a href="http://ajcf.org/">Auschwitz Jewish Center</a>, we met a twentysomething Ukrainian guy who is volunteering there for the year. His English was excellent, and I thought he did a fantastic job telling us about the Jewish community in <span style="text-align: left;">Oświ</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: left;">ęcem before the war. Only one synagogue remains, and the museum is built around it.At the center we met with a group of Polish high school students from the area--I think our "dialogue" was part of their Holocaust education. I was surprised by how little they knew about the Holocaust--naturally, the focus in Polish schools is on Polish victims, but they said that Jewish victims receive maybe one or two sentences in textbooks. I was especially surprised that their education is not more extensive simply by living in such close proximity to the camps...</span> </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We had a bit of free time to walk around the town, so I went to the castle (and did a photoshoot of the swans you see in this picture). The castle has a very strangle little museum, clearly not visited very frequently. When I walked in, the security guard rang a bell to alert the desk-person (who was upstairs somewhere) that I was there; she proceeded to turn on lights in rooms and display cabinets as I walked through the "exhibits". There was one room that talked about Judaism--not the Jewish community of the town, but about Judaism--which I thought was really interesting. The best part, though, were the period-rooms that were set up to look like how they would have looked in the early 20th century. Oh, and add Poland to the list of countries where nature has called me to her forests...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">WARSAW:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Warsaw was even more of a shock than Krakow was--it's a completely modern city with loud nightclubs, flashing neon lights, and shiny glass skyscrapers. But the post-Communist urban grunge is still very present in a weird mix with ruins left from WWII bombings, when most of the city was destroyed. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The view from our hotel room: "Stalin's Gift to Warsaw," ie: the <a href="http://www.pkin.pl/en/o-palacu/">Palace of Culture and Science</a> (PKiN), completed in 1955. Warsaw actually kind of reminded me of Chicago (okay, except for the traffic circle. We don't have those)--PKiN kind of looks like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrigley_Building">Wrigley Building</a>, but there's no fusion between the architectural styles of the buildings. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5VuFpp9Gs1idR_8IgJIOG6GQsi7_ymwRZZIiBZ8wWNKie5GekzmvzoUAXp0S0rY0WNhADngE2hRuITUCNM6yyocVSpwdkjyPQWEi-5ZQZwO2aAd4FMfECilUaPJ5396aH7DsNESTE3Qo/s1600/DSC_1990.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5VuFpp9Gs1idR_8IgJIOG6GQsi7_ymwRZZIiBZ8wWNKie5GekzmvzoUAXp0S0rY0WNhADngE2hRuITUCNM6yyocVSpwdkjyPQWEi-5ZQZwO2aAd4FMfECilUaPJ5396aH7DsNESTE3Qo/s400/DSC_1990.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Grandma and Gideon, this one's for you: Chopin's last piano! Upon Ricky's suggestion, I went to the <a href="http://chopin.museum/en">Frederyk Chopin Museum</a>! For free! I actually went because Ricky said it was a really great, interactive museum, which is true.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1SjqWvtS1FsfZzLeHrAfKhvhAeiAvtozqMzm64cUxOIkx_083RwwgJ7u2es3RU1_-G9CqBlRg3UwsNS3zNUzDl4v6hDV1CuUUCxcQ-osiCD2WX9cJNQrwNOl-1y8Co5it5A28OXSTGOE/s1600/DSC_2024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1SjqWvtS1FsfZzLeHrAfKhvhAeiAvtozqMzm64cUxOIkx_083RwwgJ7u2es3RU1_-G9CqBlRg3UwsNS3zNUzDl4v6hDV1CuUUCxcQ-osiCD2WX9cJNQrwNOl-1y8Co5it5A28OXSTGOE/s400/DSC_2024.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Another of Ricky's suggestions (catching a theme here?): the main library of Warsaw University. Unfortunately, the <a href="http://www.buw.uw.edu.pl/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=286&Itemid=91">roof garden</a> (!) was closed because of the weather, but it was worth it to go just to see the building. Each of the panels you see has a passage about books written in a different language, though the two in the foreground are panels with math and music. The interior was cool, too: kind of a fusion student center/library all rolled into one. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO8ZSW4cGJ36JBc9IZuaOntsMTI33Vujn9sZS-Y4r8NQft8MaeLA7LmspX1wwBdQPzW4XJF3ojffEPVA-j5cVtofjuu_cgL9CpnSNIcUvLK6jKc-PTjUCES_R5rygZ7dYQpfIkGCWFDDI/s1600/DSC_2476.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO8ZSW4cGJ36JBc9IZuaOntsMTI33Vujn9sZS-Y4r8NQft8MaeLA7LmspX1wwBdQPzW4XJF3ojffEPVA-j5cVtofjuu_cgL9CpnSNIcUvLK6jKc-PTjUCES_R5rygZ7dYQpfIkGCWFDDI/s400/DSC_2476.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://centrala.net.pl/our-work/keret">Etgar Keret's Warsaw house</a>! The narrowest house in the world, according to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/greathomesanddestinations/in-warsaw-a-creative-home-fills-a-void.html?_r=0">New York Times</a>! It's not much to look at from the outside, but unfortunately I don't have the right connections to get me inside... Still, it was cool to see. (Etgar Keret, by the way, is an Israeli author who writes really absurd stories). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivh_tug1rZOYSsi9uDZcoffU2UTWpUaG1dsE02c9DiyNCUIfy2Qu6EIqsTVbMjir-yAwzq6OMH6MM9CEy96-oIKMon3S04eDlHUDNn1dgA1wQW8eRllRX3ce2-24k1xS5n8w0p9St4uRU/s1600/DSC_2103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivh_tug1rZOYSsi9uDZcoffU2UTWpUaG1dsE02c9DiyNCUIfy2Qu6EIqsTVbMjir-yAwzq6OMH6MM9CEy96-oIKMon3S04eDlHUDNn1dgA1wQW8eRllRX3ce2-24k1xS5n8w0p9St4uRU/s400/DSC_2103.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://warszawa.jewish.org.pl/en">Nozyk Synagogue</a> is the only Warsaw synagogue to survive the War.--because the Nazis used it as a horse stable. Here we met one of the rabbis, an American, and had an interesting conversation about what pre-war Jewry in Warsaw looked like, and what it looks like now. One of the most interesting things was that non-religious, young female Jews were most likely to survive--it was easiest for them to a) know non-Jewish families to take them in, b) speak Polish (not Yiddish) well enough to be able to fit in, and c) be physically unidentifiable as Jews (that whole circumcision thing...). But that makes it really hard to estimate the number of Jews in Poland today--because there are still a lot of people who don't know about their Jewish roots, or who have yet to tell their children. In the synagogue's charter, the sponsoring family stipulated that the synagogue should forever remain an Orthodox one (Reform was, at the time, sweeping through modern Europe) and that someone from the congregation should always say Kaddish for them, since they had no children. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6L1ScDwA_OQ89qOb-ToVuRy9SwtrsZ1-Xmtf3hArfHz8GpI5g97a8oohTD0hFTIaDyNEQwbjo7S-UjukPtMrtSrjrGeVd_MAKO2KryT-eP-L2AyUsaRyMGc0cxyyfCfeSxSBp3lMCBY/s1600/DSC_2099.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6L1ScDwA_OQ89qOb-ToVuRy9SwtrsZ1-Xmtf3hArfHz8GpI5g97a8oohTD0hFTIaDyNEQwbjo7S-UjukPtMrtSrjrGeVd_MAKO2KryT-eP-L2AyUsaRyMGc0cxyyfCfeSxSBp3lMCBY/s400/DSC_2099.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">One of the few places in Warsaw where buildings on both sides of the street survived the War (mostly) intact. The building on the left is covered in photographs of Jewish families who lived in Warsaw before the War. Our guide, I should mention, was fantastic. Helise Lieberman, from the <a href="http://www.taubephilanthropies.org/">Taube Foundation</a> took us around Jewish Warsaw, and was not only a great guide but sparked really interesting and thought-provoking conversations. One of her ideas was to turn one of the destroyed, dilapidated on-its-last-legs buildings into a Tenement Museum-style exhibit, whereby you would learn about a couple specific families' lives. [By the way, Helise came to Warsaw about 20 years ago as the founding director of the Lauder School, Poland's first Jewish day school in decades.] </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvy4R5FEZGTlp7LB8TrWbI_hXdkEPB2nmvvFCiEKam3H31fBooXMtgU09J_Ya2JbDu_iiXYjoA8ZvDgs8te1eTWYN50yMH9XVkxkC9eu9rcmITFpA18zZKOtmslmZnhydNDu4jb-zO5uc/s1600/DSC_2131.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvy4R5FEZGTlp7LB8TrWbI_hXdkEPB2nmvvFCiEKam3H31fBooXMtgU09J_Ya2JbDu_iiXYjoA8ZvDgs8te1eTWYN50yMH9XVkxkC9eu9rcmITFpA18zZKOtmslmZnhydNDu4jb-zO5uc/s400/DSC_2131.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A few years ago, this memorial was installed at the border of the "large" and "small" Jewish ghettos in Warsaw, at the exact location where the <a href="http://ww2today.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Warsaw-ghetto-June-1942-segregation.jpg">bridge between the two</a> used to exist. About 400,000 people lived in the ghetto, which was, ironically, smack dab in the middle of the city.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hxv30RDsKW25v4S-zNYI6ILg9QIQWCQs_ThHxqAb4R6TWI9xUZtANgFjp6o0omYEUkWZJGwQSXtsyChTpTjO4Hv3t__DXolyhNZQHuqbtIDXauBbJPGz2EAckAZWm9MuXvDSTLg7UyM/s1600/DSC_2150.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hxv30RDsKW25v4S-zNYI6ILg9QIQWCQs_ThHxqAb4R6TWI9xUZtANgFjp6o0omYEUkWZJGwQSXtsyChTpTjO4Hv3t__DXolyhNZQHuqbtIDXauBbJPGz2EAckAZWm9MuXvDSTLg7UyM/s400/DSC_2150.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A close-up of the exterior of the new <a href="http://www.jewishmuseum.org.pl/en/cms/home-page/">Museum of the History of Polish Jews</a>, which will be opening next month (our timing was not so good on this one). Although it will include an exhibition room about the experience of Polish Jews during the Holocaust (and the museum shares a plaza with the memorial to the Ghetto Uprising), it is distinctly not a Holocaust museum--it's supposed to talk about the entire 1000-year history of Jews in Poland. It's a really cool building; if you look closely (or zoom in) you can see that פולין (Poland, in Hebrew) is spelled out on the glass panels. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyH1fksc2DZy1L2FNre0BIvcOqP5poX76xPhir1TUZ0yO61lT8DSXy2tugnh15ry_jrqvKhU-4vzPmem2RB3IYgbxeY0zerV8ZiG-hqaho2h50_BudAE4-9zX9vCQAy8Q9SAxQaXgjYVc/s1600/DSC_2382.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyH1fksc2DZy1L2FNre0BIvcOqP5poX76xPhir1TUZ0yO61lT8DSXy2tugnh15ry_jrqvKhU-4vzPmem2RB3IYgbxeY0zerV8ZiG-hqaho2h50_BudAE4-9zX9vCQAy8Q9SAxQaXgjYVc/s400/DSC_2382.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The old Jewish cemetery in Warsaw is in awful condition. Although some grave stones have clearly been maintained, with their engravings made clearer with paint, most are in terrible disrepair: broken, falling over, crumbling, uprooted by trees. I managed to see the gravestones of Ludwig Zamenhof (creator of Esperanto) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Czerniak%C3%B3w">Adam Cerniak<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><span style="color: blue;">ó</span></span>w</a>, who was appointed head of the Judenrat by the Nazis and who committed suicide when he was unable to negotiate the escape of Korczak's orphans (see below).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpt456ojyDuOpxWTEtTXARmjCS3havkMQ3BNupZ08Aj250aK37Kgw9wJJTWtykFkiQ8txLReoNLR5YmnyjmAo3ReODxhTJ90zsMOXnwHBcl0-FlqyKsJpZif0NHEso5Hskh6CPQjfK74/s1600/DSC_2444.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpt456ojyDuOpxWTEtTXARmjCS3havkMQ3BNupZ08Aj250aK37Kgw9wJJTWtykFkiQ8txLReoNLR5YmnyjmAo3ReODxhTJ90zsMOXnwHBcl0-FlqyKsJpZif0NHEso5Hskh6CPQjfK74/s400/DSC_2444.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Memorial to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbLSVsngEy4">Janusz Korczak</a> at the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw. Korczak operated an orphanage for Jewish children that moved to the ghetto when the Jews were forced to move there; though he was offered by Nazis to escape a number of times, on each occasion he refused in order to stay with "his" children. Together with nearly 200 orphans, he was marched to the Umschlagplatz, from where they were deported to the Treblinka death camp. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpQmPzhCzd7WzSWJid0SXRPTuNpsBFB6XwmDJzq2h_eTVLFQOdcODgKCX_jPudw01-iA9N0XnCVzrZXpc_5kGGcW6ISGvSCgljqPhsasHJwqT3UoZyH8sLjuVryz-Kh31Y4JWG4b6ibDA/s1600/DSC_2488.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpQmPzhCzd7WzSWJid0SXRPTuNpsBFB6XwmDJzq2h_eTVLFQOdcODgKCX_jPudw01-iA9N0XnCVzrZXpc_5kGGcW6ISGvSCgljqPhsasHJwqT3UoZyH8sLjuVryz-Kh31Y4JWG4b6ibDA/s400/DSC_2488.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The kotwica was the symbol of the Home Army, which largely orchestrated the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 (as distinct from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943). Now, though, the symbol is mostly a symbol of Polish patriotism and is graffitied all over. (While I"m talking about the Warsaw Uprising, I guess I should mention that we went to the <a href="http://www.1944.pl/en/">Uprising Museum</a>. Like the Chopin Museum, it was also really interactive; but, like the Schindler Factory Museum, there was way too much there to be able to focus on anything in particular). </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The graffiti/street art in both Krakow and Warsaw was much better than anything I've seen in Prague so far. This is in Warsaw, but I think Krakow's was even better (I just had to be selective with my pictures!)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Eating a huge <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapiekanka">zapiekanka</a>, an open-faced pizza/baguette kind of thing. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Our train ride back was 10 hours. Our "cabin" if you can even call it that, was probably about 3.5 feet across, and had a triple-decker bunk-bed in it. The bunks were so close together that I couldn't even sit up properly!</span></td></tr>
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<br />Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com1Poland51.919438 19.1451359999999841.795355 -1.4212705000000199 62.043521 39.711542499999979tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-66087731739285132082013-03-13T17:29:00.000-05:002013-04-17T05:47:29.133-05:00Velký Dřevíč: a Weekend in a Czech-Polish Border Village<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #323232;">This post should probably be split up into two--even though it's all about my weekend going with my roommate Vanessa to our Czech roommate Zuzana's village </span><a href="https://www.google.com/maps?q=velky+drevic&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=50.495958%2C16.188354&spn=1.89742%2C5.410767&sll=49.803763%2C15.474913&sspn=3.850333%2C10.821533&t=m&hnear=Velk%C3%BD+D%C5%99ev%C3%AD%C4%8D%2C+Hronov%2C+Czech+Republic&z=8&iwloc=A"><span style="color: blue;">Velký Dřevíč</span></a><span style="color: #323232;"> in Eastern Bohemia near the Polish border, there's a lot of content. But that also means lots of pictures! So if you get bored scrolling through, just click on the pictures and you can look at them like an album.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'll give a brief outline here in case you don't have time to read all the captions. We left Friday afternoon; on Sunday morning we had a "cooking lesson" (fried cheese and garlic soup!) with Zuzana's mom before heading out to Poland, and then a funky Tibetan tea shop in the evening! The next day, we took a nice long walk around the village and came back in time to do a short interview about the Communism-->democracy transition with Zuzana's dad before heading back to Prague. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1BnF7CT7HdwujXYMyXwNeSh__eLSRCs0UppTecWONByndygi8dh2V8qwc0ecgdulDkH2TqBVdc3JFrqWR9qd6VIhMuSxrAyr43P3ggRt5sPTDjiGvdz5i7UiMtWOuNhCHZw3hp5C3xoU/s1600/IMG_4580.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1BnF7CT7HdwujXYMyXwNeSh__eLSRCs0UppTecWONByndygi8dh2V8qwc0ecgdulDkH2TqBVdc3JFrqWR9qd6VIhMuSxrAyr43P3ggRt5sPTDjiGvdz5i7UiMtWOuNhCHZw3hp5C3xoU/s400/IMG_4580.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">When classes ended on Friday, I realized I had nothing to bring with as a gift for Zuzana's family, and I didn't know where any flower shops were (or if that's even a thing here). So, after seeing Gideon's beautiful challahs on Facebook, I realized that I had just enough time to whip up a batch. As Gideon said, it was a "good week for challah-eating friends of the family" (Mom and Grandma also made beautiful challahs).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaYYFuNC0U1oOIB8yvdtOy-l0jj9APpdub09G3HE1zecwnyAyU8j-LvMBA13xO4-uIExxeyFjuqXLGpRovAM3CP_ejYE-YXZj-nk_n97H4sjL9GsyXoE8mqFyGTobBvPFc60F4EGcQWws/s1600/DSC_0899.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaYYFuNC0U1oOIB8yvdtOy-l0jj9APpdub09G3HE1zecwnyAyU8j-LvMBA13xO4-uIExxeyFjuqXLGpRovAM3CP_ejYE-YXZj-nk_n97H4sjL9GsyXoE8mqFyGTobBvPFc60F4EGcQWws/s400/DSC_0899.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">The train! (Well, not ours, but the one next to us). The ride was about 2.5 hours, and at the end we transferred to a local commuter rail that was kind of like the Dinky in function, but not at all like the Dinky in reality because it was beautiful and new and had electronic displays and more than one car.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWWxY1KnUvUdh-tr0IAdxDAI1SmK1UMZy8GFiE6rVJIOzPU-UOKlw48b1pHyn25t8OsAzjsz7zEQBXDkcjhF2BKYoN2a2X3-Q68Fu2PMFxzJrmYXtjskMRIv1uYlUgrx-hJOz4DprAE9k/s1600/DSC_1080.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWWxY1KnUvUdh-tr0IAdxDAI1SmK1UMZy8GFiE6rVJIOzPU-UOKlw48b1pHyn25t8OsAzjsz7zEQBXDkcjhF2BKYoN2a2X3-Q68Fu2PMFxzJrmYXtjskMRIv1uYlUgrx-hJOz4DprAE9k/s400/DSC_1080.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We passed a lot of really old, abandoned rail cars along the way. Imagine taking the train in the freezing cold in a car like that!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcE3sO9NnL4gTFQFyF2FT7D6Pwx_E0kdDZuCWlRM66UUrZYO6y4XWkNJPEjNAqZNeODm3WTJj_ID6rAkOFKiVWwAgNW0w88w-XUsjtjDylJ88O2jQgCl8-KcGFNayZCGR7SuAu3IxTmYU/s1600/DSC_1076.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcE3sO9NnL4gTFQFyF2FT7D6Pwx_E0kdDZuCWlRM66UUrZYO6y4XWkNJPEjNAqZNeODm3WTJj_ID6rAkOFKiVWwAgNW0w88w-XUsjtjDylJ88O2jQgCl8-KcGFNayZCGR7SuAu3IxTmYU/s400/DSC_1076.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">After a much needed sleep-in on Saturday morning, we were greeted by this beautiful scene as we walked down to the kitchen. Mom, the kitchen was orange! And it worked really well with the lighting.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3aHdjRdlwFVvhnZjLbD3P_XbE9Y1CCs-FHKoJMB03vn9wxZtgqvBGhUaXfGCZajRDHuzS4bgsaVf-UMyIW84LS1JzuaNOyR1bpka0UvqXsZd5UVSeH2pnOdPdLpfpR9P-1SszvIj1AnY/s1600/IMG_4590.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3aHdjRdlwFVvhnZjLbD3P_XbE9Y1CCs-FHKoJMB03vn9wxZtgqvBGhUaXfGCZajRDHuzS4bgsaVf-UMyIW84LS1JzuaNOyR1bpka0UvqXsZd5UVSeH2pnOdPdLpfpR9P-1SszvIj1AnY/s400/IMG_4590.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">The beautiful lighting in the kitchen was complemented by this incredible breakfast spread. Fruit, tea, juice, cereal, cheeses, whipped honey (the most delicious food ever), yogurts, jam, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolache"><span style="color: blue;">koláč</span></a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"> fruit cake/pastry deliciousness (and apparently really popular in Texas). On the bread-plate in the center of the table is one of my challahs, cut up--funny enough, it's actually very similar to the Czech Christmas bread (minus the raisins) that's on the bread platter on the right side of the photo. It was also nice to have a reminder of Shabbat, even though I wasn't in a Shabbat-y environment.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtJMPVFtTb4dSisAqRf9IFU64gcltuBYW8Xm6a9O6RDNdFZhHFp2jj5OWGdExGjglO5R6NQMlEDA1NyZ9Tj-YzFvqXGPVt4QzCIH9EN1L-ttA9r1XBgZbB1khjg_xMUs3WaN6uy2XToUI/s1600/IMG_4594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtJMPVFtTb4dSisAqRf9IFU64gcltuBYW8Xm6a9O6RDNdFZhHFp2jj5OWGdExGjglO5R6NQMlEDA1NyZ9Tj-YzFvqXGPVt4QzCIH9EN1L-ttA9r1XBgZbB1khjg_xMUs3WaN6uy2XToUI/s400/IMG_4594.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">The lighting was so pretty!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4eVqwznNdCzrbb9jPVcJ_YSacSUgWLRSo3ZmhhzOAw3BJFDvWMmYaCbAx7E0bid1kH247Y7wcbFHcQpzgeI5pzhruErXqAQheJhQwkFQhKX8cxo8JLfysRDp1CMflyDnnrbJCW1KOvd4/s1600/IMG_4596.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4eVqwznNdCzrbb9jPVcJ_YSacSUgWLRSo3ZmhhzOAw3BJFDvWMmYaCbAx7E0bid1kH247Y7wcbFHcQpzgeI5pzhruErXqAQheJhQwkFQhKX8cxo8JLfysRDp1CMflyDnnrbJCW1KOvd4/s400/IMG_4596.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">I mentioned to Zuzana a few weeks ago that I really wanted to learn how to make Czech food. As soon as we finished eating breakfast, her mom, Jana, took out what must have been 5 pounds of different kinds of cheese to teach us how to make</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sma%C5%BEen%C3%BD_s%C3%BDr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"><span style="color: blue;">s<span style="line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">mažený sýr</span></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">, the fried cheese that's so popular here. (This picture has about a third of the total amount we made). </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnCYMQNmTkliwb9UQRCJh9MsiJG0Zk1xQj5dy7Re_r5mGRZa3VMNNslajGwWf27dVYQEoBY9EQatu-oFJYPTLAEd-ANqlBd6WuYC_fkPKJqTWuQZfUpvhKwk9cAJVuZXpO5oWD5hVPgs/s1600/IMG_4603.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnCYMQNmTkliwb9UQRCJh9MsiJG0Zk1xQj5dy7Re_r5mGRZa3VMNNslajGwWf27dVYQEoBY9EQatu-oFJYPTLAEd-ANqlBd6WuYC_fkPKJqTWuQZfUpvhKwk9cAJVuZXpO5oWD5hVPgs/s400/IMG_4603.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">This is the enormous pile of cheese right before we stuck them in the deep fryer (from the South to the Czech Republic... I must have a thing for places that like</span><a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2012/06/cheap-gas-deep-fried-oreo-and-medgar.html" style="background-color: white; color: #7c171d; line-height: 17.98611068725586px; text-decoration: none;"> </a><a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2012/06/cheap-gas-deep-fried-oreo-and-medgar.html" style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"><span style="color: blue;">deep-fried food</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">!). Step 1: cover the cheese in flour. Step 2: Coat in an egg-milk mixture. Step 3: Coat in bread crumbs. Step 4: One more coat of egg-milk. Step 5: One more coat of bread crumbs. Step 5: OIL!</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZNUqeRW6nPoUnEuDGbFvNQrFkAoTE_Pg_HzTfYu1fnn_mJWqzR2iwvqV9ff6i6nO1LSJYW7A_SwrEVNb1jSivXPaWdNLYGp7k82KnBH0WiKQFfjB7SvoMTYrAw-yB8W943EzL01rIDYQ/s1600/IMG_4607.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZNUqeRW6nPoUnEuDGbFvNQrFkAoTE_Pg_HzTfYu1fnn_mJWqzR2iwvqV9ff6i6nO1LSJYW7A_SwrEVNb1jSivXPaWdNLYGp7k82KnBH0WiKQFfjB7SvoMTYrAw-yB8W943EzL01rIDYQ/s400/IMG_4607.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Halfway done with frying. It's kind of like glorified mozzarella stick, but with fancy cheese. They were so rich though, I could only eat a bite of each. We also learned how to make garlic soup, which I'm going to make all the time at home both because it's so simple and because it's so delicious!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigxQjlWKZb5nHlbfcwEVz1IVY32w9u5Kwn_aA8nTBjsWUI-GMChJ8JBnjeEbN1knwEEzDCuy-RS8QcqjmqkScKmVCyheaIKdWLIs3gADym2NohMDqj5KIx5EPdZVrhNnp5imeXuKnxBnc/s1600/DSC_0917.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigxQjlWKZb5nHlbfcwEVz1IVY32w9u5Kwn_aA8nTBjsWUI-GMChJ8JBnjeEbN1knwEEzDCuy-RS8QcqjmqkScKmVCyheaIKdWLIs3gADym2NohMDqj5KIx5EPdZVrhNnp5imeXuKnxBnc/s400/DSC_0917.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Welcome to Poland! I was so full I could hardly walk, but there's no way I was going to pass up the chance to cross the border, only 15 minutes from Zuzana's house!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh99uekbCK1n3WI6yk9hGCwWWO22aRpGV57yr4hl6OSDSo5O9yV54S2iuAbjWIq10w_aFN5sC8NU8yrQIMhsph_3UareHptL6TDIk_g126VImBqn7a1FiDpR0Jb2YJ1aeg5z_T0geouwJY/s1600/DSC_0928.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh99uekbCK1n3WI6yk9hGCwWWO22aRpGV57yr4hl6OSDSo5O9yV54S2iuAbjWIq10w_aFN5sC8NU8yrQIMhsph_3UareHptL6TDIk_g126VImBqn7a1FiDpR0Jb2YJ1aeg5z_T0geouwJY/s400/DSC_0928.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">The last word on the bottom row of the sign on the right side of this picture is ridiculous. It hurts my brain just to look at it. (Ricky, how do you pronounce that?) Actually, once I could equate certain letter combinations with their Czech equivalent, I was able to read the Polish signs much better and even guess what some of them meant, which was really cool.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsA2Pq_Xn-uqS-2-UFEQOB7m-ThMFvzt5mr_WA02ByJxjuKKFxfVX6zNSQpsJY1jtT7p4Y338ge4Azs_PQzbpFOjcEfPHERBQYCrErR9O8jLtDBHMRp3cUdQg42kehpGjQHeWzqBVZZ9E/s1600/DSC_0937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsA2Pq_Xn-uqS-2-UFEQOB7m-ThMFvzt5mr_WA02ByJxjuKKFxfVX6zNSQpsJY1jtT7p4Y338ge4Azs_PQzbpFOjcEfPHERBQYCrErR9O8jLtDBHMRp3cUdQg42kehpGjQHeWzqBVZZ9E/s400/DSC_0937.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">The polish town was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=kudowa+zdr%C3%B3j&hl=en&ie=UTF8&safe=off&hnear=Kudowa-Zdr%C3%B3j,+K%C5%82odzko+County,+Lower+Silesian+Voivodeship,+Poland&t=m&z=12" style="color: blue;">Kudowa-Zdró</a><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=kudowa+zdr%C3%B3j&hl=en&ie=UTF8&safe=off&hnear=Kudowa-Zdr%C3%B3j,+K%C5%82odzko+County,+Lower+Silesian+Voivodeship,+Poland&t=m&z=12" style="color: blue;">j</a>, and it's known as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudowa-Zdr%C3%B3j" style="color: #7c171d; text-decoration: none;">spa town</a>. Obviously we didn't go in the spa because a) it was (probably) expensive and b) we didn't have zlotys!</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGWpszYgDgkFD0Cf4VjBjhW5DBei79xs6h-L6nJ-2yZMzkkDSWlMVUDud8Cl9kxVhtAkQYj7lDUoVsGLyd7up7wx52op2gfrDXvqOeP_aOQPL3zgzpZzznmpYprfK6OV8ztv0xQ25-gpM/s1600/DSC_0934.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGWpszYgDgkFD0Cf4VjBjhW5DBei79xs6h-L6nJ-2yZMzkkDSWlMVUDud8Cl9kxVhtAkQYj7lDUoVsGLyd7up7wx52op2gfrDXvqOeP_aOQPL3zgzpZzznmpYprfK6OV8ztv0xQ25-gpM/s400/DSC_0934.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">But we did get to drink some of the mineral water (from this pump)! It was warm. And bubbly. And a little salty. Which is a really weird combination. But I never really understood before why the mineral water you buy at stores is bubbly, because I'd never had natural mineral water before.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfvIb8dgY-rNjVKLhixlvTUomAosyuMbIKZLle-L5J0w9IE7U_uSsxULRi49P1tk3y5En0267BQXx-q5KplKpKxF67qSSMOBTVsNRTBMUPFVtAOxllHx-yqd3DmKDn1VNPqwZCW0MKKHU/s1600/DSC_0941.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfvIb8dgY-rNjVKLhixlvTUomAosyuMbIKZLle-L5J0w9IE7U_uSsxULRi49P1tk3y5En0267BQXx-q5KplKpKxF67qSSMOBTVsNRTBMUPFVtAOxllHx-yqd3DmKDn1VNPqwZCW0MKKHU/s400/DSC_0941.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Oh yeah, there was also a water park. Mostly it was inside, but this section of the slide went outside and I'm not sure why this man wasn't frozen, because it was approximately 25 degrees out.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvg7xnpWW3oB3S5D5Y2PwTQML6RVqArpXA5GMb0yYgBXHjDlVXxys7wKS3CFKuG3hoqKOV_AsOaN0h7yilRuw8nrToYBQHLip7fAMRKTbyhphrmiRs4zYW2UULyVfo-kHAJDvkzBF_bc/s1600/DSC_0947.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvg7xnpWW3oB3S5D5Y2PwTQML6RVqArpXA5GMb0yYgBXHjDlVXxys7wKS3CFKuG3hoqKOV_AsOaN0h7yilRuw8nrToYBQHLip7fAMRKTbyhphrmiRs4zYW2UULyVfo-kHAJDvkzBF_bc/s400/DSC_0947.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Piano in the park! Unfortunately, it wasn't real.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDIogNNc9s-Kbks0gO8kofhGDZE3M2urXfKvkwO5HLPFlHDU1fcBcfVbEX7vB6PAev9lXwjYj7Lx7v9uUQ8mPg3FqVR8NXJt_MXv2aXrkxMqbZBJ0RTGTN2HU-KNxSC5XXTBhyphenhyphenqYFNCh4/s1600/DSC_0956.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDIogNNc9s-Kbks0gO8kofhGDZE3M2urXfKvkwO5HLPFlHDU1fcBcfVbEX7vB6PAev9lXwjYj7Lx7v9uUQ8mPg3FqVR8NXJt_MXv2aXrkxMqbZBJ0RTGTN2HU-KNxSC5XXTBhyphenhyphenqYFNCh4/s400/DSC_0956.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">On the way back to the village we stopped in the town of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A1chod"><span style="color: blue;">Náchod</span></a><span style="color: #323232;">, where Zuzana went to high school. The</span>re's a castle in the town (and bears living on the grounds!) but unfortunately it's under repair and the bears are all in hibernation. This building is the New Town Hall, in the main square. We went to a place called Waffle Cafe to warm up for a bit, and I had the best delicious white hot chocolate--I thought it was going to be too sweet, but it was just right, and nice and frothy. Also, the cafe was on </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Karlovo Náměstí</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"> which is also the name of the square I live near in Prague!</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1lBh8VK-HVGjvgxcMeoKVZZsegwG_gLOteu96DjalvHOV0yo4DeEF_THdE6l6bkdOHnSrBN4nJ5fPOBaU9njGYoCaw3-4IQjylWQvPvNPkaoyvRDEdEiS7SmErqA1vYumA06lvJxRUE/s1600/DSC_0967.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1lBh8VK-HVGjvgxcMeoKVZZsegwG_gLOteu96DjalvHOV0yo4DeEF_THdE6l6bkdOHnSrBN4nJ5fPOBaU9njGYoCaw3-4IQjylWQvPvNPkaoyvRDEdEiS7SmErqA1vYumA06lvJxRUE/s400/DSC_0967.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Just something I thought was interesting, because you mostly never see satellite dishes in the States anymore. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRURIFK7Tn0ce2nrJdfmQjU9RzvNHSVNhHupXNxDnIWSi7YjBscQEgznPaYTeDvHekf7UVB_gOKO7qCJ8H4NONB5bXQTvAZXO1YsrE8zYIIF_h1WuK-k73yCpckGpUNCkStPqzv-CtJk4/s1600/IMG_4613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRURIFK7Tn0ce2nrJdfmQjU9RzvNHSVNhHupXNxDnIWSi7YjBscQEgznPaYTeDvHekf7UVB_gOKO7qCJ8H4NONB5bXQTvAZXO1YsrE8zYIIF_h1WuK-k73yCpckGpUNCkStPqzv-CtJk4/s400/IMG_4613.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">After dinner (food was the theme of the weekend) Zuzana, her father Jaroslav, Vanessa and I drove to the nearby town of Hronov to </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.98611068725586px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.bilydrak.cz/"><span style="color: blue;">Čajovna U Bílého Draka</span></a><span style="color: #1c2a47;"> (Tea House of the White Dragon); it was wonderful, if not entirely out of place in the Czech Republic. It was a full-on Tibetan/South Asian/Middle Eastern (very </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/infini-T-Caf%C3%A9-and-Spice-Souk/174873602561346"><span style="color: blue;">Infini-T esque</span></a><span style="color: #1c2a47;">), complete with hookah and barefoot waiters(!). It was a wonderfully relaxing evening, and we ordered 3 or 4 pots of tea.</span></span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitfkoWiD23aCwsAG9cJuUgJLa5dddcxPl3ITBDe9ttE42f-PfhuQjSBIrwPKbmyH2ldF36RyVyMFmjuuOy_ooDwyAWcMEORQldlbm5lDL1bZBigQkpJB8vs6w6fp4zZuHqh859GguwfsA/s1600/DSC_0977.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitfkoWiD23aCwsAG9cJuUgJLa5dddcxPl3ITBDe9ttE42f-PfhuQjSBIrwPKbmyH2ldF36RyVyMFmjuuOy_ooDwyAWcMEORQldlbm5lDL1bZBigQkpJB8vs6w6fp4zZuHqh859GguwfsA/s400/DSC_0977.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">On Sunday morning we woke up a bit earlier, so we'd have enough time to see the whole village before taking a mid-afternoon train back to Prague. The weather was chilly, the sky was foggy, and it was a bit misty, but in a romantic way I think the village was actual more picturesque like that than it would have been if there was a shining sun in a blue sky. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwDviOinpfiaSP-fWfWycCAZm14-JtX8JAkXVT8hQBfSlCGAfx46RJ4BxyGx7mQWwD-G_3F3FGJWqt9kHMPGBmFMnV_i1LIfDYTbRn0YX4xCy1kbtfY8YzYSX8ACwMSLpqJP2fITZgAs/s1600/DSC_0987.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwDviOinpfiaSP-fWfWycCAZm14-JtX8JAkXVT8hQBfSlCGAfx46RJ4BxyGx7mQWwD-G_3F3FGJWqt9kHMPGBmFMnV_i1LIfDYTbRn0YX4xCy1kbtfY8YzYSX8ACwMSLpqJP2fITZgAs/s400/DSC_0987.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">I love the hazy trees in the background. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja23D4p1xfkJqzQ5TI1V-L7X3NYsm9sJ_MOtSYSCuCZ1cez4X1YThLtR5bnkM3OC1sNsdPOc_I7X1iO7EdlQX9PlyeiX-jsH8_XCpSjQXm52KkgwBGQW7wjW9pN0yI8LdCFugPXaQTWwM/s1600/DSC_0979.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja23D4p1xfkJqzQ5TI1V-L7X3NYsm9sJ_MOtSYSCuCZ1cez4X1YThLtR5bnkM3OC1sNsdPOc_I7X1iO7EdlQX9PlyeiX-jsH8_XCpSjQXm52KkgwBGQW7wjW9pN0yI8LdCFugPXaQTWwM/s400/DSC_0979.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Rooster! Chickens!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVeCVAwBUtlikoGWJea5ypur7UCCbQzdY1q8TCQJM2CnRPiUG5KZBl6oaD5NWbo88UHACJLEVEwp6kHa749CmJaLw3V1bDNzh27NoKZ1wgf1A5J_HzKKYTW8VmVsUlFAnqGorKYxYctdU/s1600/DSC_0990.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVeCVAwBUtlikoGWJea5ypur7UCCbQzdY1q8TCQJM2CnRPiUG5KZBl6oaD5NWbo88UHACJLEVEwp6kHa749CmJaLw3V1bDNzh27NoKZ1wgf1A5J_HzKKYTW8VmVsUlFAnqGorKYxYctdU/s400/DSC_0990.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">In my mind, this is what a village house looks like, which I suppose is, again, a very romanticized conception. But still. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuQZZMxfSOzYwMYob_uEKyoR_HsobHVkpiHGW0-P7cDr0XmdfliCsaiKrxzuVwONf8r1W2sTRMV2KtwysE1yMR8QKp76JYXrkVev9Ee-VEmcXI-C9ZChXtpXcn5UCOMjJr1EBRMGJrV08/s1600/DSC_1005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuQZZMxfSOzYwMYob_uEKyoR_HsobHVkpiHGW0-P7cDr0XmdfliCsaiKrxzuVwONf8r1W2sTRMV2KtwysE1yMR8QKp76JYXrkVev9Ee-VEmcXI-C9ZChXtpXcn5UCOMjJr1EBRMGJrV08/s400/DSC_1005.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">More natural water sources to try! This one is supposed to bring you good luck, I think. I am not joking when I say that my first thought, before convincing myself to taste a handful, was: "Oh wow. I would never drink this water on</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"> </span><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~oa" style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"><span style="color: blue;">OA</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">. I hope I don't get giardia!" So far, so good.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQP8g0WuIFztzUMLNz9-vltTdWo-SlReEbMFEr_y4ykqczBmRdEUA6IPIc5DvlRCjPkhRrcOcgfm5vhKeBI1ct-Uq3JJOsoLt5NJRrxhWJWP7MPvNQDFfGxv7hfqBKVYNFR7C2QC5emEw/s1600/DSC_1013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQP8g0WuIFztzUMLNz9-vltTdWo-SlReEbMFEr_y4ykqczBmRdEUA6IPIc5DvlRCjPkhRrcOcgfm5vhKeBI1ct-Uq3JJOsoLt5NJRrxhWJWP7MPvNQDFfGxv7hfqBKVYNFR7C2QC5emEw/s400/DSC_1013.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">This is how they indicate that you're leaving a place.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK665hwlcxu8hCR6nDrNXLo23kvGfccdvzoFUZH-rpiLkHVZIwDKHFGLSNccg1n3FSszEfvMm7MMQfrtXHhcrDudXm1XaifXAm-ArmDyJGhQNFBcIuxh8SqQYQNVEmIzSLDiqZewWemCE/s1600/DSC_1025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK665hwlcxu8hCR6nDrNXLo23kvGfccdvzoFUZH-rpiLkHVZIwDKHFGLSNccg1n3FSszEfvMm7MMQfrtXHhcrDudXm1XaifXAm-ArmDyJGhQNFBcIuxh8SqQYQNVEmIzSLDiqZewWemCE/s400/DSC_1025.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">We continued our walk even after we left the village, and it just made me want to go hiking! There were so many kinds of trees, mountains (okay, hills) on all sides, a brook/river below... We didn't go up into the mountains/hills at all, but I did climb up into the trees a bit when nature called. Add that view to the list.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_nIa__f8LmqFMLOY2aRdx91l4rDqNzo6mbiCVIIq3oClEIW-Kxj_X1-RacwgrLGyLVXsBFl1IDRqEqmObtH9v8cKY7RK23KDvsMdCu06c4YYG0H9GxJYTEJcFjPQrYlVq-6dTYtrvHBw/s1600/DSC_1027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_nIa__f8LmqFMLOY2aRdx91l4rDqNzo6mbiCVIIq3oClEIW-Kxj_X1-RacwgrLGyLVXsBFl1IDRqEqmObtH9v8cKY7RK23KDvsMdCu06c4YYG0H9GxJYTEJcFjPQrYlVq-6dTYtrvHBw/s400/DSC_1027.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">I was only half-joking when I said I wanted to jump in, just to say I'd done it. But the air really was freezing, and I probably would have gotten hypothermia, which is no fun. Not that I know from experience, but I can imagine. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Heading back to the village. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1j6dDAHDIMuIZZ0YkEjK4c6Y7IPcf3Koh07sM6gHUKoW_yz7E97Q-_BnUfm4FCDxlLrKbC8FRzdMYAgcJ5FrPEPfN6Hgyb96mnRrqEshQ4NcYMYvYAw_k3GM0Iyq8i0UIQVBkjvsM6rA/s1600/DSC_1052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1j6dDAHDIMuIZZ0YkEjK4c6Y7IPcf3Koh07sM6gHUKoW_yz7E97Q-_BnUfm4FCDxlLrKbC8FRzdMYAgcJ5FrPEPfN6Hgyb96mnRrqEshQ4NcYMYvYAw_k3GM0Iyq8i0UIQVBkjvsM6rA/s400/DSC_1052.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Lots of the houses still use wooden stoves!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvpe088u-G-TutbybSjFjidMXB-opQGtQi2mMdnFMvBhNWs8hiIXjnUNY1iZRaUttJX6UpM4UU3OBX4biLGZ0r8IMToDjjn_lgWUNPvaCkV3BHutnQ06_YcUwG4AD3G3BReK-VwmnHwNM/s1600/DSC_1064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvpe088u-G-TutbybSjFjidMXB-opQGtQi2mMdnFMvBhNWs8hiIXjnUNY1iZRaUttJX6UpM4UU3OBX4biLGZ0r8IMToDjjn_lgWUNPvaCkV3BHutnQ06_YcUwG4AD3G3BReK-VwmnHwNM/s400/DSC_1064.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Smokestack of the factory in the town. In terms of industry and economic pursuits, there's not much else in the village. A school, one-and-a-half pubs/restaurants, a swimming pool, a post office... But even for things like grocery shopping, you have to leave the village. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivc4gF5zC5oi7WLX9t6wDiNQKa02lrHCtOahyUvail1jiV3XIML3jpd-hQJTrf5cCK3rKd1WfPdrxXUJGHJpRtzO9L76XbtM4KC6SrHDxL-GxPAYKulyiTSMzG-XjeqFHac11g__8BomA/s1600/DSC_1067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivc4gF5zC5oi7WLX9t6wDiNQKa02lrHCtOahyUvail1jiV3XIML3jpd-hQJTrf5cCK3rKd1WfPdrxXUJGHJpRtzO9L76XbtM4KC6SrHDxL-GxPAYKulyiTSMzG-XjeqFHac11g__8BomA/s400/DSC_1067.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1245042883648.2026886.1156650460&type=1&l=1c5e6cea5a" style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"><span style="color: blue;">I just like reflections a lot</span></a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"><u><span style="color: blue;">.</span></u><span style="color: #323232;"> </span></span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXod5y-AkdiNujPQcWvtmJJ6yrbnY9cWVZFpouXXh3lxH7p_oPOHX0rf0xROjDLFL-N01BApAEZvCrUbfOb1KNYT2NeOulj0kxWzImPn8pmDWoy941HiIcM4yOjuvIp8hc7pOQv0afkEI/s1600/DSC_1072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXod5y-AkdiNujPQcWvtmJJ6yrbnY9cWVZFpouXXh3lxH7p_oPOHX0rf0xROjDLFL-N01BApAEZvCrUbfOb1KNYT2NeOulj0kxWzImPn8pmDWoy941HiIcM4yOjuvIp8hc7pOQv0afkEI/s400/DSC_1072.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">Zuzana's father carved this replica of the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai" style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"><span style="color: blue;">Easter Island moai</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">figures in their back yard! His father was a woodworker. The other half of the tree used in this carving was used to carve the Buddha statue at the tea house mentioned earlier. </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_ZeWAaWw9y5lw8zvzZb4I-esVwjcUQMytdKtpUerlVF5rlUwZKdtsySnBpuHZxvH74RMU-fPG1YZKuc1uw-7TK2WqZe4C9cRBZsxYud_vcvmggPMkeZplEWt6m2ktqcRFLuIXhQcF4E/s1600/IMG_4641.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_ZeWAaWw9y5lw8zvzZb4I-esVwjcUQMytdKtpUerlVF5rlUwZKdtsySnBpuHZxvH74RMU-fPG1YZKuc1uw-7TK2WqZe4C9cRBZsxYud_vcvmggPMkeZplEWt6m2ktqcRFLuIXhQcF4E/s400/IMG_4641.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17.98611068725586px;">From left to right: Me (obviously), Vanessa, Zuzana, her sister Pavla, their mother Jana, their father Jaroslav. This is right after Vanessa and I interviewed Jaroslav for one of our classes about the transition between communism and democracy. </span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com3Velký Dřevíč, 549 34 Hronov, Czech Republic50.4982887 16.18439490000002924.843217200000005 -24.948417599999971 76.153360200000009 57.317207400000029tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-19321547204690673012013-03-03T15:37:00.002-06:002013-03-13T17:54:14.493-05:00Visits to Lidice and Terezín<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you're not in the mood right now for pictures of, and reflections about, concentration camps and the Holocaust, you probably want to read this later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On Friday we took a trip to Lidice, the town the Nazis razed and whose citizens they massacred on June 10, 1942 in retaliation for the assassination of the German Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich earlier that year. Today (Sunday) we visited the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">Terezín/</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Theresienstadt ghetto, a camp that more than 150,000 Jews passed through in addition to the thousands of other, non-Jewish political prisoners (e.g.: communists, homosexuals, Gypsies) sent there. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px;">Terezín was not a "death camp," per se, though tens of thousands of prisoners died while there, and conditions were by no means comfortable. An article just <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/sunday-review/the-holocaust-just-got-more-shocking.html?hpw">came out yesterday</a> in the New York Times about the ongoing discovery of thousands more Nazi concentration camps than anyone ever imagined existed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.1875px;">LIDICE:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmfXftTNxWGXM55bmDAzt5Am058NaEVXlIdKyu1GDPiUfkdJpzhmjvGernpWvEQ4gTkUtFEn8cNF-GQnWl6RU8bekSTmQi2J1TtG7MjG9ZTFwWPLgB0HSbveyfROOCWMYePhRhfkLZh4M/s1600/DSC_0610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmfXftTNxWGXM55bmDAzt5Am058NaEVXlIdKyu1GDPiUfkdJpzhmjvGernpWvEQ4gTkUtFEn8cNF-GQnWl6RU8bekSTmQi2J1TtG7MjG9ZTFwWPLgB0HSbveyfROOCWMYePhRhfkLZh4M/s400/DSC_0610.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We began our Lidice trip at the <a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/spotlight/pragues-church-of-saints-cyril-and-methodius-place-of-worship-and-memorial-to-victims-of-nazi-terror">Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral</a> in Prague, a seven minute walk from my apartment. Heydrich's assassins in Operation Anthropoid, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Kubi%C5%A1">Jan Kubiš</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jozef_Gab%C4%8D%C3%ADk">Jozef Gabčík</a>, his in the crypt of the church for three weeks with five other resistance fighters until their hiding spot was betrayed. These are the stairs leading from the crypt up to the Church. On June 18, 1942, the <a href="http://www.army.cz/images/id_7001_8000/7419/assassination-en.pdf">Gestapo stormed the church</a>, flooding the crypt and shooting bullets inside; the resistance fighters who were not killed by the Gestapo's shots committed suicide. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Although regular services are still conducted inside the church, the crypt is the National Memorial of the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror, and this plaque contains the names of 294 Czechs who helped the soldiers carry out the assassination and hide from the Gestapo afterwards.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> After watching a short documentary at the cathedral about the assassination, we drove thirty minutes to Lidice.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The town of Lidice used to stand here. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Inside the memorial museum, there is a wall with the names of all those murdered in the Lidice massacre.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">All of the men of the Kova</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">ř</span><span style="font-size: small;">ovsky family were murdered.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Kova<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">ř</span>ovsk<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: start;">á</span> women were also murdered. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8LdolGQlCWkKC6ANOEbrhy6fW8BNYAQ8G4x03B-AW4G9iXcfx4H7w-KM5Tfi8LGYwYDUhUXyPuzmQkXesORnl5vKKTYcRQ6z1QGe1BEBAeMSz3ijdcapy3Lp9xkml9SKRh1jHH1SNzwg/s1600/DSC_0630.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8LdolGQlCWkKC6ANOEbrhy6fW8BNYAQ8G4x03B-AW4G9iXcfx4H7w-KM5Tfi8LGYwYDUhUXyPuzmQkXesORnl5vKKTYcRQ6z1QGe1BEBAeMSz3ijdcapy3Lp9xkml9SKRh1jHH1SNzwg/s400/DSC_0630.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Emanuel Kova</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">řovsk</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">ý's name on the memorial. It's easy to become jaded and indifferent when you see a wall with names of thousands of people who were murdered, and all of the names start to blur together, which is why, I think, it's so important that individual survivors tell their stories. For the same reason, when I'm at memorials like these I find it most meaningful to pick one person or one family and to follow their story through to the end.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRv60VrZ_YowgqLBh968P6hULQ6NTBhyphenhyphenT10p5PRBJIrszjHvdfefT7EtNpz9ba8n0D4J3tVyxzVpFjnFNzYsrXo9smqxWaUqgAKQmqOS_hYQQ9OOFJu7V6R1Z6vXsprzFDDImoIZhIPWw/s1600/DSC_0620.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRv60VrZ_YowgqLBh968P6hULQ6NTBhyphenhyphenT10p5PRBJIrszjHvdfefT7EtNpz9ba8n0D4J3tVyxzVpFjnFNzYsrXo9smqxWaUqgAKQmqOS_hYQQ9OOFJu7V6R1Z6vXsprzFDDImoIZhIPWw/s400/DSC_0620.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This photo of the children of Lidice was taken two days before the massacre. Eight of the children, including the girl with the large bow third from left in the back row, were "selected" for adoption by SS soldiers' families because of their potential for "aryanization." Most were gassed at <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">Chełmno, 17 (not all the children are in this picture) returned to Lidice after the war. </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Eighty-two bronze children in Marie Uchytilová's "Memorial to the Children Victims of the War" overlook the razed town.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRBP2QoOYciEN6orv-qVMDvDm_ovdtwksAT3uGrfKSd0vsF2bf7pLQpoM3nJNUrRrzMDlQkmOMSBOCTXzRRjYV40ddZRYOhr9JXUjZbkbWp8LEgfIdEC2PjQ-RJVQ_THYLZmOWIkX1gtY/s1600/DSC_0641.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRBP2QoOYciEN6orv-qVMDvDm_ovdtwksAT3uGrfKSd0vsF2bf7pLQpoM3nJNUrRrzMDlQkmOMSBOCTXzRRjYV40ddZRYOhr9JXUjZbkbWp8LEgfIdEC2PjQ-RJVQ_THYLZmOWIkX1gtY/s400/DSC_0641.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Lidice children murdered at <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">Chełmno ranged in age from babies to sixteen-year-olds.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2l1yCUyQKObz-BBUeSdyXUH8Vi9OuuqRGg18abpzG3hgkuB3tYWKz8HuQJOLvjxYQlZj1XpvplCsvrylRWFqMIUW8P5a4MkngPgqBYEWpwHZQK-yQaiGhuw7BcRK18hwD4OxkqyLZMiw/s1600/DSC_0642.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2l1yCUyQKObz-BBUeSdyXUH8Vi9OuuqRGg18abpzG3hgkuB3tYWKz8HuQJOLvjxYQlZj1XpvplCsvrylRWFqMIUW8P5a4MkngPgqBYEWpwHZQK-yQaiGhuw7BcRK18hwD4OxkqyLZMiw/s400/DSC_0642.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Over the years, visitors have left stuffed animals and other children's toys; this is something I've seen at many memorial sites where children have been killed, most notably at the memorial for the Oklahoma City bombing. On the one hand, I understand the sentiment--on the other, I think it cheapens the solemness of the memorial. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This was too eerie not to include.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/if-i-had-been-a-boy-i-would-have-been-shot">Jarka "Iron Lady" Skleničková</a> was 16 years old when the Nazis destroyed Lidice (according to the woman who made the introduction, "They call her iron lady because she has iron hips," though now apparently her knees are also artificial). Through one of our program directors, who served as her translator, <a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/if-i-had-been-a-boy-i-would-have-been-shot-part-2">Ms. </a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/if-i-had-been-a-boy-i-would-have-been-shot-part-2">Skleničková</a> told us the story of her time in concentration camps, of working conditions, getting infections in her legs, learning how to survive.... After the war ended and she was liberated, she remembers thinking she probably acted more like a 35 year old than a 21 year old, because of all she'd been through, and thought she was going to have to marry someone decades older than she was. She met up with other survivors from Lidice after the war, and now lives there with her husband (who was introduced to us as "her good angel") and has six grandchildren who live nearby. She told us that if she can been born only two months later, she would have been taken with the children, not the women, and killed immediately.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">TEREZ</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">Í</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">N/THERESIENSTADT:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;">In </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px;">Terezín</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"> our tour guide was </span><span style="line-height: 19.18402862548828px;">Dagmar Lieblová, who was sent with her family to </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px;">Terezín</span><span style="line-height: 19.18402862548828px;"> in 1942. Though she was sent to Auschwitz with her family, a clerical error recorded her as four years older than she actually was, putting her with the working-age women rather than with the children, who were almost necessarily murdered. She was liberated from Bergen-Belsen by the British in 1945, and was instrumental in founding the </span><a href="http://www.terezinstudies.cz/eng/main"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px;">Terezín</span><span style="line-height: 19.18402862548828px;"> Initiative</span></a>. On the drive there, which took about an hour, I couldn't stop trying to imagine what it would have been to have made the same journey as a Jew on a transport. On the way back, appropriately, I finished Helen Epstein's <i>Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for her Mother's History</i>--I think it was actually good that I read part of it before coming to Prague and going to <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px;">Terezín, and part of it after.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This cemetery/memorial is right next to the crematorium which, in the case of <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Terezín refers not to gas chambers but to the building where the bodies of those murdered were cremated. At first, they kept the ashes in wooden urns, but when those began to take up too much space they forced the prisoners to make paper urns for the ashes of their friends and relatives. Later in the war, as it became clear that Germany was going to lose, the SS officers dumped the ashes into the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Ohře River.</span> </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Somehow, Irma Lauscher, a Jewish prisoner who was a volunteer teacher in <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Terezín</span> bribed a guard to smuggle a maple sapling into the ghetto to celebrate Tu Bishvat. The large tree in this photo is that original tree, which died a few years ago--but the smaller tree on the left, wrapped in an Israeli flag, is a sapling grown from an offshoot of the original tree. I just learned that another sapling from the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Terezín</span> tree is planted <a href="http://www.juf.org/news/local.aspx?id=43870">outside of the Illinois Holocaust Museum</a> in Skokie, where Grandma is a docent.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Aunt Ruth sent me an NPR piece weeks ago called <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/01/25/169364174/honoring-our-will-to-live-the-lost-music-of-the-holocaust">"Honoring 'Our Will to Live': The Lost Music of the Holocaust,"</a> which I only got around to listening to today. In it, Sylvia Poggioli reports: "The Terezín was camp unique. It was ghetto, concentration, and transit camp all in one that the Nazis used as a cultural showcase to deceive the Red Cross and for propaganda purposes." In our visit to the <a href="http://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/en/photogallery/magdeburg-barracks?lang=en">Magdeburg Barracks</a>, there were hundreds of drawings, some done by prisoners who drew propaganda in the drafting office but often stole materials to make their own, secret drawings. We saw sheet music written and prepared in the camps, poems written about daily life--including the famous poem "I never saw another butterfly" by Pavel Friedman. There were copies of the newspaper <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Modern_History/1914-1948/The_Holocaust/War/Final_Solution/Vedem.shtml">Vedem</a>, which the boys of the ghetto produced in secret, and which was written (with the exception of a few editorials) entirely by children. The prisoners also produced plays, dramas, and operas, including </span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-2508458.html">Brundibár</a>, </i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">which was performed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXvFKAtTa_k">55 times at </a></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXvFKAtTa_k">Terezín</a>.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">More eeriness, the irony of which I can imagine was not lost on the political prisoners trapped at </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Terezín, where they could see the mountains in the distance even as they walked to the Small Fortress, which was also at </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Terezín</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;"> but was separate from the Jewish ghetto. The Small Fortress was the largest Gestapo prison in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Although </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Terezín is most (in)famous as a Jewish ghetto and concentration camp, its history as a garrison town actually dates back to the 18th century.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2QJvmMzz68dvpILeiQfBvCmQC80FujJ7i95FOCnb_-V8fOGfjNKyfM1cqDS9qXRR7Eu3vFm0xgk-vS2NcTDmjtpqKzoO19gIoiSKWx7rKmNX4urvpjMa_G5gSB63KAhftjusZn_AZ88/s1600/DSC_0739.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2QJvmMzz68dvpILeiQfBvCmQC80FujJ7i95FOCnb_-V8fOGfjNKyfM1cqDS9qXRR7Eu3vFm0xgk-vS2NcTDmjtpqKzoO19gIoiSKWx7rKmNX4urvpjMa_G5gSB63KAhftjusZn_AZ88/s400/DSC_0739.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">After passing through the offices where you would have waded through the Nazi bureaucracy, you would have walked through the archway reading "arbeit macht frei (work makes you free)." I found the beautiful weather (crisp and cold, but sunny with a blue sky) to be kind of a creepy contrast to the "arbeit macht frei" sign, especially since there have been only about four blue-sky days since I've been here. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Looking out from the bedroom/mess hall of (non-Jewish) political prisoners. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Next to the room above (for non-Jewish political prisoners) was the cell for Jewish prisoners. It was significantly smaller, to the point that the 60+ prisoners who would have been there at any given time couldn't even lie down to go to sleep. This window didn't open then, and the only source of clean air circulation was a small, 4-inch by 4-inch hole cut into the wall. This window was the only source of light. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This "<a href="http://www.jewishpinellas.org/page.aspx?id=54863">hidden synagogue</a>" was discovered only recently. It's in the basement level of an "apartment" that housed 15 people. The inscription in this photo, painted by Asher Berlinger, reads "ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון ברחמים," an excerpt from the daily Amidah prayer that means, "May our eyes behold your return to Zion in Mercy." I'm not sure who Ann Golbderg is, but she seems to have the full scoop on the discovery of this synagogue in a blog post, which <a href="http://livingandwritinginisrael.blogspot.cz/2010/04/holocaust-story-hidden-synagogue-of.html">you can read here</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9Tr_Fo98EzHyNGLDxo3sb8sPwrAy8Cy6qKPz0Rs2ZIY0cFdWEITdnCbPa9aRkj20nsLgjGKbbnDsnQYKX8Vt2NPByBRcm6P9aQZ8tjCQkNTKaHwUoJfTWnGegzecKG6Tt-Qu58j_8YE/s1600/DSC_0774.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9Tr_Fo98EzHyNGLDxo3sb8sPwrAy8Cy6qKPz0Rs2ZIY0cFdWEITdnCbPa9aRkj20nsLgjGKbbnDsnQYKX8Vt2NPByBRcm6P9aQZ8tjCQkNTKaHwUoJfTWnGegzecKG6Tt-Qu58j_8YE/s400/DSC_0774.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This room, lined with sinks and mirrors, was constructed entirely as a piece of Nazi propaganda in advance of the <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007463">Red Cross inspection</a> that came to check conditions at <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Terezín</span> in June 1944. The Nazis spruced up the camp for the visit--in reality, showers and laundry were a scarce luxury, and prisoners certainly weren't provided with mirrors. When the day of the visit came, the Red Cross officials didn't even make it to this part of the camp, and the room was never used. After the Red Cross visit, the Nazis put out this <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_fi.php?ModuleId=10007463&MediaId=234">propaganda video</a>, to prove the cultured quality of life they were providing for Jews at <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.18402862548828px; text-align: left;">Terezín</span>. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Although the Small Fortress was unrelated to the Jewish ghetto part of </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 19.18402862548828px;">Terezín, there were of course Jewish prisoners who were sent to that part of the camp. The Jewish cells in the Small Fortress were single-person cells measuring about 5 feet wide by 7 feet deep. This is the roof they would have looked at as they tried to fall asleep on their wooden beds, knowing that they'd likely be shot in the next few days--and if not, that they'd be sent on a "transport," where they would certainly be killed. The "dormitories" of the non-Jewish prisoners at the Small Fortress were much bigger, housing 300 per room in stacked, shoulder-to-shoulder bunk beds.</span></span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Cemetery of political prisoners right outside the Small Fortress.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">By the end of our trip, the color of the sky looked more appropriate for the setting.</span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com1Czech Republic49.817491999999987 15.47296200000005244.536925999999987 5.189759000000052 55.098057999999988 25.756165000000053tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-74937463184669836382013-02-23T18:50:00.001-06:002013-02-23T18:56:48.661-06:00#100: Purim comes to Prague<span style="font-family: inherit;">I learned on Facebook that the kindergarten at <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.akibablogger.blogspot.com%2F&ei=dJwmUbuSLY6LswaegYH4Cg&usg=AFQjCNEFvcDLCckT0DqQWv4yQXs-Eie24w&sig2=iPmL6cPaeNirx9UlsM6Cvg&bvm=bv.42768644,d.Yms">Akiba Schechter</a> is about to celebrate its 100th day of school, which I remember as being a Very Big Deal from when I was five. The participants in the thread were discussing possible items that students could bring one hundred of in order to mark the occasion (I don't remember what I brought, though probably something like 100 M&Ms, or 100 paper clips). On the same day as I read that conversation, I realized that my next post would be my one-hundredth blog post since starting when I went to Israel <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2009/08/arrived.html">three-and-a-half years ago</a>. One hundred is a pretty special number, so I knew that the hundredth blog post had to be pretty special. Purim is special, so I guess that works.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And so I bring you....Purim in Prague! [Plus a couple other things. Like snow and glass harps.]</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIWMgSHt7qQAZ3YmVddLWdzQkTXEjF7dZ0E3cDPq404N8OOAbEgFzijuKKZWqsheVl3VLPX00wJAhpt2mmnNBFWaCdVQvxOIaQB0W0PnncAVS2k3JcwEq_MzbT2qW5fkhT8VJbNRU_MtU/s1600/IMG_4155.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIWMgSHt7qQAZ3YmVddLWdzQkTXEjF7dZ0E3cDPq404N8OOAbEgFzijuKKZWqsheVl3VLPX00wJAhpt2mmnNBFWaCdVQvxOIaQB0W0PnncAVS2k3JcwEq_MzbT2qW5fkhT8VJbNRU_MtU/s400/IMG_4155.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It all began last weekend, when I bought all the ingredients for Dad's/The Bubbe's hamentashen recipe. Because I knew that if I bought them, I'd have no choice but to make the dough and filling! So on Wednesday I got my hands dirty and did all the patchkey-ing that comes with kneading dough by hand. And since don't have a food processor either, I chopped the raisins, prune, and walnuts as best I could for the poppyseed filling. On Thursday night, my roommate Sara and I made them--they weren't exactly the same as at home (for one, I forgot to glaze them) but still, they were delicious!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">[This is not about Purim.] It snowed today! A lot! I'm not the best at estimating depth, but I'd say by the end of the day there was probably at least 5-6 inches. For the first time this year, I got to see a substantial amount of snow falling from the sky. It was quite exciting, and justified my decision to wear my hiking boots to shul with my dress. My friend Gaby, who is studying abroad here on another program, got this picture of me eating snow off a car on our way from services to Kiddush-hopping/Shabbat lunch. (Shabbat lunch, by the way, was wonderful. There's an Israeli man who has lived in Prague for quite a while, and his brother and his band was visiting Prague this weekend and they sang the most beautiful harmonies to Shabbat songs!)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">[The following video is not about Purim either, but it's something cool I saw.] The "Czech buddies" (Czech students who live with us) organize Czech Tables a few times every month, and you can go to as many as you want. In theory, it's supposed to be an informal gathering at a cool local place where you can practice your Czech, but in reality is just a way to hang out with people and get the program to pay for things. This afternoon I went to the <a href="http://www.grandcafeorient.cz/index.php?id=home&lang=en">Grand Orient Cafe</a>, which is located in the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHouse_of_the_Black_Madonna&ei=31kpUeaTIdHjtQbL1YDgDw&usg=AFQjCNGPandPeim5Gb8_bbUQ2Y_WAaiwsQ&sig2=5UpM9h8sWXSFdDvN27xibQ&bvm=bv.42768644,d.Yms">House of the Black Madonna</a>, a cubist building constructed in the early 20th century. (If you're interested, the crepes I got there with hot raspberry sauce, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream were delicious.) On my way to the cafe from Shabbat lunch, however, I passed this guy playing wine glasses:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, back to Jew-y things.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtbg86m99DLpsH6Ysek-EcmDqCF5qN7JSCL-QCx75U47RyrvZES42rhAMUf9T0LV4XW__wNuPnp85neUOwN6zO0af5MX5W5jlbpN3uvVMpwMmM9hlqRD8m9I-hG-Aorib1-UcOP1faLsI/s1600/IMG_4234.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtbg86m99DLpsH6Ysek-EcmDqCF5qN7JSCL-QCx75U47RyrvZES42rhAMUf9T0LV4XW__wNuPnp85neUOwN6zO0af5MX5W5jlbpN3uvVMpwMmM9hlqRD8m9I-hG-Aorib1-UcOP1faLsI/s400/IMG_4234.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://www.masortiprague.cz/index.php?page=marom&lng=en">Masorti (Conservative) community</a> has services every Friday night, which I'm really glad I found out about because the Old New synagogue has tiny holes for the women to look through. No fun. Somehow I got myself into "interning" for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/masortipragueabroad?fref=ts">Masorti Prague Abroad</a>, helping organize and publicize events for students here for a semester. This Shabbat was the first time we had an event (services followed by dinner at the <a href="http://www.dinitz.cz/">Dinitz kosher restaurant</a>. Such good food!). For the first time ever, I led Maariv, and this was what I got to look at as I led! It's the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Synagogue_(Prague)">Vysoka (High) Synagogue</a> in the same building as the Jewish Town Hall. This weekend was actually a Double Shehecheyanu for me, because I also read Megillah for the first time! (Last year doesn't count, because it was three verses.)<br />Besides Gaby and me, the other person to read Megillah was Shumi [Insert Last Name], who used to carry <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITstpCVtDN8">Shlomo Carlebach's</a> bags for him. I'm not sure what his story is, but he seems like an interesting guy who I'll get to know more, because he seems to be around all the time. There was also a wonderful Israeli family visiting Prague this weekend who invited me for a meal when I go to Israel to visit Naomi, et al. over Passover!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijsmJwfx13U0pjqvX8Wjg6fJ4CUUpP1G5GWcp_8Q14SEP1wmtFelp1979B6beA3HVfGAnNCVEAm-9GWaVWDE5jZH7sfnFjcrFp1bHx73h1lXOdSQb7B05yxA_ztOowe6SaEgdUIx8CnNE/s1600/IMG_4231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijsmJwfx13U0pjqvX8Wjg6fJ4CUUpP1G5GWcp_8Q14SEP1wmtFelp1979B6beA3HVfGAnNCVEAm-9GWaVWDE5jZH7sfnFjcrFp1bHx73h1lXOdSQb7B05yxA_ztOowe6SaEgdUIx8CnNE/s400/IMG_4231.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Except for one kid and a few scattered adults with masks, the four of us were the only ones who dressed up for Purim. Maybe costumes are not a thing in Prague? (Though we found out later, at the community's Purim party, that that's not true. So many just no one wore costumes to our service). The four of us are all studying abroad here on three different programs. It was great to meet some students from other study abroad programs, because mine is so small and it's nice to expand the circle a little bit, and I think that my "internship" (yes, the quotation marks are there for a reason) will help me meet more people than I would have otherwise met.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOIqEeBqddnen7NW07LAc_X86waP4v9n7spfSeTbK3Cb1RP_761tktdC3QimjHj2zVnxIdwbYCXp7bev5-MDHjqZnqDMzhGuUHnWWOMnqiDWzc7xt-eAo4zGwveSrQmnpIPhXqKyEcyt0/s1600/IMG_4236.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOIqEeBqddnen7NW07LAc_X86waP4v9n7spfSeTbK3Cb1RP_761tktdC3QimjHj2zVnxIdwbYCXp7bev5-MDHjqZnqDMzhGuUHnWWOMnqiDWzc7xt-eAo4zGwveSrQmnpIPhXqKyEcyt0/s400/IMG_4236.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In case you couldn't tell what my costume was from the previous picture, it's my usual: pregnant religious woman. Comments/questions I received: "Is it real?" "Is it by King Achashverosh?" "Wait, you weren't like that this morning!"</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGcjcbh569t2xOKIb2WSeMzm4iDWAFEJWXGooGCUP4O4qBToTtjd_Eni5RZuciXpXs6-sR6RUQOYtyRmi0nKZyw1lyqG5qW3uhDcXQz_cb7DY_2iTjTHnJSoreiXH2q8FVk6tFELYB03g/s1600/IMG_4242.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGcjcbh569t2xOKIb2WSeMzm4iDWAFEJWXGooGCUP4O4qBToTtjd_Eni5RZuciXpXs6-sR6RUQOYtyRmi0nKZyw1lyqG5qW3uhDcXQz_cb7DY_2iTjTHnJSoreiXH2q8FVk6tFELYB03g/s400/IMG_4242.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">After the reading, Gaby and I headed downstairs to check out the community's Purim party. Our first site: The Tall Man playing violin. Later in the night, he danced to the music of the jazz band playing upstairs, and it was hilarious to watch because it looked like his "knees" were always buckling backwards. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyNXFq9gNSYdNAEk77Oi394-GxBUsndLL6JeHnXKd-UxJWfh51DGW4__aekYuVrPZoaK848WCt41GR9NJ3DmuEuxHuRq2XsYvbmGVFkH4NHJKKDv2GyhTfrggsvc44E4PryiYmukk1dwI/s1600/IMG_4298.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyNXFq9gNSYdNAEk77Oi394-GxBUsndLL6JeHnXKd-UxJWfh51DGW4__aekYuVrPZoaK848WCt41GR9NJ3DmuEuxHuRq2XsYvbmGVFkH4NHJKKDv2GyhTfrggsvc44E4PryiYmukk1dwI/s400/IMG_4298.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A Purim spiel, as performed by Divadlo Feigele, a children's theater company formed about 30 years ago in the Jewish community! This is the scene of the beauty contest, where King Achashverosh is picking his new queen after throwing Vashti out of the palace. In the red is Esther, and next to her Mordechai is trying to convince her to put herself in the running. The little girls are the princesses, and there are also hand-puppet/marionettes!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwLZ4z3_es4b60wUv51JDE2VPbI2aA0eeY9E7xx_72h44ceEesdtnlwTLEJZCfNPfvU4s_d9ynF3AL0y_x-fAvJQxqlL5_iMEjr-sLF9AmBuc7_A-N0ri1FwnWnPctt_UPELFRFnhFd1Y/s1600/IMG_4318.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwLZ4z3_es4b60wUv51JDE2VPbI2aA0eeY9E7xx_72h44ceEesdtnlwTLEJZCfNPfvU4s_d9ynF3AL0y_x-fAvJQxqlL5_iMEjr-sLF9AmBuc7_A-N0ri1FwnWnPctt_UPELFRFnhFd1Y/s400/IMG_4318.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The whole cast of Divadlo Feigele. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Obviously we couldn't understand many of the actual words that were spoken in the spiel, but it was really cool to be able to follow nonetheless, because we're so familiar with the story. The video below is the scene where Haman is forced to lead Mordechai around on a royal horse wearing the King's clothes proclaiming, "This is what is done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.":</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Gaby and I decided to venture upstairs, and what we discovered there was the real party! Karaoke, a bar, and lots of local Jews our own age (who knew those even existed!?). After a while we noticed this bizarre portrait of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria">Franz Josef</a>, the last monarch of the Hapsburg Empire. He was relatively tolerant of the Jews (we just read his edict of "semi-emancipation" of the Jews in one of my classes), so I guess that's reason enough to have a portrait of him? The room, one the fourth floor of the Jewish Town Hall, was quite extravagant--red wall-papered wall, gilded paint, big crystal chandeliers....</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The flutist (floutist? flautist?) was excellent! I don't think I've ever heard jazz flute before, and if you haven't either you should take a look at this (short) video:</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gaby and I with Rabbi Michael "Einstein" Dushinsky. Rabbi Dushinsky (he goes by "Dushi," which sounds like another word that's not so nice) is quite a character. He's also the one who helped me learn the part of the Megillah that I read.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">And the Purim fun only continues tomorrow! I'll get to hear Rabbi Dushinsky read Megillah, and then there's a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/473923132669501/?fref=ts">Chabad Purim Disco</a> (???) tomorrow night that I think I'll go to. I'm not sure when I'll do my reading, but it'll get done. </span></div>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Prague, Czech Republic50.0755381 14.4378004999999849.749331600000005 13.795100499999981 50.4017446 15.08050049999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-89481340485163032272013-02-15T18:04:00.002-06:002013-02-15T18:06:38.195-06:00Český Krumlov: a little fairy-tale town<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This post is a few days late; I never realized how much I rely on my computer until it died! I took it to a repair place earlier this week and they told me my motherboard was dead. But he fixed it in one day and now I have it back!</div>
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Last Sunday, my program took us on an overnight trip to a town in southern Bohemia (pretty close to the Austrian border) called <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=cesky+krumlov&ie=UTF8&ll=48.806863,14.326172&spn=3.928876,10.821533&hnear=%C4%8Cesk%C3%BD+Krumlov,+Czech+Republic&t=h&z=7">Český Krumlov</a>. It dates back to medieval times, and was once the seat of a pretty powerful autonomous region, but now it's pretty much a tourist haven because it's one of a few towns whose medieval history--castle and all--has really been preserved. And yes, it really does feel like you're walking around in a fairy-tale. A lot of these pictures are going to be similar, but the castle (and views) were so pretty that I had to take lots of pictures, and it was hard to pick my favorites. I'll try to label the sections so you can skim through if you want.<br />
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THE CASTLE:<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiRi9yna7biFnPsUDQ4skRt99rYv9MavkMeAx75RyqsPWt-4I1jZz_B0V4kGJ7Om-qro2R6gYE4sET-IdcDloDEdoHs2rK9OcqvSeigtNi8Aid6wGxF6k87QVN1PNSCdvfNDtfmUMzTb0/s1600/DSC_0466.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiRi9yna7biFnPsUDQ4skRt99rYv9MavkMeAx75RyqsPWt-4I1jZz_B0V4kGJ7Om-qro2R6gYE4sET-IdcDloDEdoHs2rK9OcqvSeigtNi8Aid6wGxF6k87QVN1PNSCdvfNDtfmUMzTb0/s400/DSC_0466.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">My first view of the castle. This is what I looked out upon from my room in the adorable B&B we stayed in. Somehow, Zuzana (my Czech roommate, who I roomed with on the trip) finagled getting us the best room in the house, complete with a Jacuzzi hot tub (which we didn't use).<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">On our way into the castle complex for a tour. Unfortunately, many things are closed during the winter (including the castle's interior and the super-cool-looking puppet museum!), so we didn't actually get to see what the castle looked like on the inside. Instead, we got to tour the newly constructed "Castle Museum," which has a lot of artifacts but isn't nearly as cool as being inside a real castle. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioTv2IdZaUJUH3pO2yvFsddVK3TnLd0So9t8YhNrqVRMA78NLE64gd8371czZes6SoZa2mMXcuUGkei67aY59gyQe2zbUYmA3vOACQK_CuNnQFx9MapRLgrXdUc30HSg3YTzjCT5_mvpM/s1600/DSC_0346.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioTv2IdZaUJUH3pO2yvFsddVK3TnLd0So9t8YhNrqVRMA78NLE64gd8371czZes6SoZa2mMXcuUGkei67aY59gyQe2zbUYmA3vOACQK_CuNnQFx9MapRLgrXdUc30HSg3YTzjCT5_mvpM/s400/DSC_0346.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Detail on the painting. Apparently, this was in <a href="http://www.castle.ckrumlov.cz/docs/en/zamek_2nadvori_rekvez.xml">horrible shape</a> as recently as about 20 years ago, and they've done a lot of restoration work to get the town to the tourist attraction it is today. Český Krumlov is actually a really interesting town from a social perspective: it is often looked to as an example of ideal relations between Roma and white ethnic Czechs. The Roma have lived in the town for decades, and when the municipality decided to start restoring its historical value after the fall of Communism, they contracted the work to a local Roma-owned company, which is still responsible for most of the upkeep. But it looks like there's <a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/talking/is-cesky-krumlov-still-the-model-for-czech-roma-relations">still a ways to go</a> in the Czech-Roma relationship. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNB8cSq6av1BHBK9OnVML1aWF9YeEl37zugfZ43Of06C4nSnC2R7D7wgQAs50H-OnhKZHE-0nkOKDOHdjJpgifMGWBRAfqN70jI71tk6P0rgMrrw68LTkqnNxqEmOetANSg8_PaOnIW9c/s1600/DSC_0437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNB8cSq6av1BHBK9OnVML1aWF9YeEl37zugfZ43Of06C4nSnC2R7D7wgQAs50H-OnhKZHE-0nkOKDOHdjJpgifMGWBRAfqN70jI71tk6P0rgMrrw68LTkqnNxqEmOetANSg8_PaOnIW9c/s400/DSC_0437.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">More details. Also, every single tower has a clock on it. </span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkIvUvyM5_zGy4jeWu-VP2ropINv5_asCbSyjnlE22BsadkaGiZvEPagNom3Jhhz8bmZfJmOZIyE21mAc8vP6nZ-p4ltOA5cfDC-BhXIIGg8WTjI520SW9TaGJrP2IlzYLLQ-DS8tqGs/s1600/DSC_0397.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkIvUvyM5_zGy4jeWu-VP2ropINv5_asCbSyjnlE22BsadkaGiZvEPagNom3Jhhz8bmZfJmOZIyE21mAc8vP6nZ-p4ltOA5cfDC-BhXIIGg8WTjI520SW9TaGJrP2IlzYLLQ-DS8tqGs/s400/DSC_0397.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">After our tour ended, we had about an hour-and-a-half before we were supposed to meet up at <a href="http://www.eggenberg.cz/index.php?page=home&lang=en">Eggenberg Brewery</a> for dinner. I took the time to go wandering down a little path I'd seen earlier, and found myself in an entirely separate section of town with many little bridges crossing the river (which is pretty narrow at that point). This is from the first bridge. [After I got back from wandering, I went back to our hotel room and took a hot shower to make up for all the times our hot water broke mid-shower at our apartment. And because I was half-frozen.]<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCndxGoOkYdgCRcLsll4cvStq4mx4_hPLP1-YidOOWhiWwJps_xbEY_8fTFhQjswNjUv2qevu9DgW4RnKKcq2v8zZC-WwMujpZvUMFHlPkoQJf4aBtd8QXshJmpOGFOnaJBCwkU8XBd-g/s1600/DSC_0406.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCndxGoOkYdgCRcLsll4cvStq4mx4_hPLP1-YidOOWhiWwJps_xbEY_8fTFhQjswNjUv2qevu9DgW4RnKKcq2v8zZC-WwMujpZvUMFHlPkoQJf4aBtd8QXshJmpOGFOnaJBCwkU8XBd-g/s400/DSC_0406.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">From the second bridge.<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr3ItwWwD2TIfqTLeGForsdcCdVWqeZhK2DW0SBs8QjK_4X-sb5g81687E8V2_uQMY-Vzo_KYJiBGxaUg_Q_wecHLDqSqGK5665U-bSe_wqg0WMZ4-hkZfR8kX1yyu_PIwaTzFvYPjjxU/s1600/DSC_0433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr3ItwWwD2TIfqTLeGForsdcCdVWqeZhK2DW0SBs8QjK_4X-sb5g81687E8V2_uQMY-Vzo_KYJiBGxaUg_Q_wecHLDqSqGK5665U-bSe_wqg0WMZ4-hkZfR8kX1yyu_PIwaTzFvYPjjxU/s400/DSC_0433.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><span style="font-size: small;">And on my way back into the main part of old town. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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THE VIEW FROM THE CASTLE TOWER:<br />
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<tr><td><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha51_A4kl_YJ_321sl5A3kuDXyxEnDfJ6rFILAPtiJIlqpUJrkpia0JrFywz2fGKp-ODhEKVIddcqJySpaQ5prIJyp8PYuqLbNyepTpY3-8ZtxdVZ5ybojrv6eKsuIzLDqaCG8tEfxLmc/s400/DSC_0455.JPG" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">We got to climb up the castle tower, and this is the view looking down. If you look on the right-side background, you'll see the <a href="http://www.ckrumlov.info/docs/en/mesto_histor_kapkrh.xml">chapel on the Mountain of the Cross</a> that I hiked to with some friends on the second day of our stay (pictures later in the post).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEing7_RwGzAGAIerrw3sll5tm-iM_uRYwLZmU9p3UWdV01FSr06s9RhbRQPlWLjFV2JalqH0bMswdvQzwZ8HZBeK_wC6PtYpfUcvA9eR9-u3ImlFxu5eIbmF5HHChRRRbRopHawuiYx7fE/s1600/DSC_0439.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEing7_RwGzAGAIerrw3sll5tm-iM_uRYwLZmU9p3UWdV01FSr06s9RhbRQPlWLjFV2JalqH0bMswdvQzwZ8HZBeK_wC6PtYpfUcvA9eR9-u3ImlFxu5eIbmF5HHChRRRbRopHawuiYx7fE/s400/DSC_0439.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">For some reason, the view reminds me of the children's book <i>Brave Irene</i> by William Steig (and <a href="http://youtu.be/IoOFL_Gz_C4">read by Al Gore</a>?). </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAY65joXfJH8Qx8aIn0VbzQagtM8ugSShy7cYi04qJQhxNGLRqqQC8w0oN9B5Yund9qtKF_hwacvN8EDw1MBMZKevsM0m8rtdCLaEqleicqLepbMY7_Ye-6Ly68tzbelFlJ_c7PJOV0A/s1600/DSC_0293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAY65joXfJH8Qx8aIn0VbzQagtM8ugSShy7cYi04qJQhxNGLRqqQC8w0oN9B5Yund9qtKF_hwacvN8EDw1MBMZKevsM0m8rtdCLaEqleicqLepbMY7_Ye-6Ly68tzbelFlJ_c7PJOV0A/s400/DSC_0293.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2xj2Zj0CiiiVyJMNNqAD9lVk5n8SfokN_d-AOmRFbfXZSAMee8doKRfBIzWvga9p_87EudW0FxiYR77zRh9jUBgCtnAKFT4Yde_u3uAG0VgF_4B6q2kutdxcR9rckaUk9krD6tVMtwwQ/s1600/DSC_0308.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2xj2Zj0CiiiVyJMNNqAD9lVk5n8SfokN_d-AOmRFbfXZSAMee8doKRfBIzWvga9p_87EudW0FxiYR77zRh9jUBgCtnAKFT4Yde_u3uAG0VgF_4B6q2kutdxcR9rckaUk9krD6tVMtwwQ/s400/DSC_0308.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The monastery-on-a-hill is in the background here, too.<br /></span></td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWP6tT81PVTxOdkEtnPvmhZshoHosBP4HbjqdIH6PaizrrB7K0bRf8KV1QnZzxruMfLTZXJqQbSDKxp_bOPJLvPwyqXqgoLdtcGOgUVEU9h80tT7zNzNf1dba9AIXTln8NvPQLDsS_yDo/s1600/DSC_0334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWP6tT81PVTxOdkEtnPvmhZshoHosBP4HbjqdIH6PaizrrB7K0bRf8KV1QnZzxruMfLTZXJqQbSDKxp_bOPJLvPwyqXqgoLdtcGOgUVEU9h80tT7zNzNf1dba9AIXTln8NvPQLDsS_yDo/s400/DSC_0334.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDGLzyd8amDDya0zu64mOXJgfvELxWrZrlvpy-WXNmPd78QNmusj6z3p7CV5o14adVXokRacf9ex5OTAX5bgthBcfuAHtqhyphenhyphenONHIZCANWID05EWKnApXz2-WNuV3xO6u1jk9WQXwuSu74/s1600/DSC_0454.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDGLzyd8amDDya0zu64mOXJgfvELxWrZrlvpy-WXNmPd78QNmusj6z3p7CV5o14adVXokRacf9ex5OTAX5bgthBcfuAHtqhyphenhyphenONHIZCANWID05EWKnApXz2-WNuV3xO6u1jk9WQXwuSu74/s400/DSC_0454.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">So picturesque! If the sky had been blue, it really would have been right out of a fairy-tale.</span><br />
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THE CASTLE MUSEUM AND THEATER:<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNpbsATp4whPfPc3GZG63JW1xiOirzgSr2-CXfzn-OphqZCTuXwftI9JGTRzR_LkF0bZLmEW2ushuq-pkg2JFcgAUnktDIWp43aYylHUfMkgb7TGZF-lLcEUzkeYC5vZiHYs1qtCTNW0/s1600/DSC_0302.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNpbsATp4whPfPc3GZG63JW1xiOirzgSr2-CXfzn-OphqZCTuXwftI9JGTRzR_LkF0bZLmEW2ushuq-pkg2JFcgAUnktDIWp43aYylHUfMkgb7TGZF-lLcEUzkeYC5vZiHYs1qtCTNW0/s400/DSC_0302.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">Walking through the castle museum we came upon this; fine, so some religions do the whole relic thing and the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead...but what you don't know when you just walk by this lady is that she's not actually just a lady, she's a body reconstructed from the bones of numerous dead people! Ichsa!<br /><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJm6JJNyKxOjJddQiaQT_v29SU8r-fOY_VrWlcR4kBtyRSVlSpPX91ZqDcythpJogMVImpPh_fBngXXqfbmzPatzRChQg8LYRw5lwkXC8mIDBBJdU5bM5ao50OnU9Pj92xsalGjPytSfg/s1600/DSC_0299.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJm6JJNyKxOjJddQiaQT_v29SU8r-fOY_VrWlcR4kBtyRSVlSpPX91ZqDcythpJogMVImpPh_fBngXXqfbmzPatzRChQg8LYRw5lwkXC8mIDBBJdU5bM5ao50OnU9Pj92xsalGjPytSfg/s400/DSC_0299.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">The. Best. Toilet. Ever.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinr6goScOmpaUpKsyurIrrpkvrYSMjbfOBtZEBkCtGnp5B2WKX3CxSQRsxtdaO3aEaIrddFkAxhUz92KJmDIEBj6_FmxKcdpTeddsI9ocgQjaPRy8FTdTaLNY5RCuhiFswbLi1mvmN6Cg/s1600/DSC_0459.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinr6goScOmpaUpKsyurIrrpkvrYSMjbfOBtZEBkCtGnp5B2WKX3CxSQRsxtdaO3aEaIrddFkAxhUz92KJmDIEBj6_FmxKcdpTeddsI9ocgQjaPRy8FTdTaLNY5RCuhiFswbLi1mvmN6Cg/s400/DSC_0459.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is the interior of the Castle Theater, one of the oldest preserved ones of its kind. All of the scenery is hand-painted on canvas and stuck onto wood. There are rolling mechanisms that allow them to do a scenery-change that takes all of six seconds, and we also got a demonstration of how they would have made it sound like there was a thunderstorm--there's a thunder-making machine (basically, you roll a wooden gear on the ground), a machine that makes the sound of wind by capturing air and whooshing it out, and a big barrel filled with beans that gets rolled to sound like rain pelting down. In order for the theater to be called a "theater" and not a "museum," they are required to hold performances a couple times a year, though the moisture from lots of people packed into the auditorium is bad for the scenery preservation. It was also freezing in there, and I thought I was going to get frostbite on my toes. </span><br />
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HIKING UP TO THE MONASTERY:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNLvFlZs15Xp02AnScfcjcuOIEzJjFgAB4ytdzky4f91aonpMqKhS2wyaxq6SiZ8UnuY4DE-JihyphenhyphencgCywx5BGRBbvLJB7MyWLy15pUgiTOU3Vi7wmNaf6P2KYO4TnY138uS9sWgMPgQYE/s1600/DSC_0481.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNLvFlZs15Xp02AnScfcjcuOIEzJjFgAB4ytdzky4f91aonpMqKhS2wyaxq6SiZ8UnuY4DE-JihyphenhyphencgCywx5BGRBbvLJB7MyWLy15pUgiTOU3Vi7wmNaf6P2KYO4TnY138uS9sWgMPgQYE/s400/DSC_0481.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Passed this frozen laundry on our hike up to the monastery, one of the few things on our hastily-prepared guide sheet that was actually "open" in the winter. During the afternoon we had some free time to wander, and a group of five headed up to the top of the mountain (by Chicago standards) in the distance.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjTDagIxZ9ojp61qBpe3E4IIIpPWK9W-EADav-w8Sc3vOO4tT5SKcrgXMW3kbVFdKMJpNzwAKvfCwV3qQyL2d1MFVnMlE-HyzZeX57UL-cUD1OhhEST0G4IMukHzXXOzYKFt4BnafY_Rk/s1600/DSC_0494.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjTDagIxZ9ojp61qBpe3E4IIIpPWK9W-EADav-w8Sc3vOO4tT5SKcrgXMW3kbVFdKMJpNzwAKvfCwV3qQyL2d1MFVnMlE-HyzZeX57UL-cUD1OhhEST0G4IMukHzXXOzYKFt4BnafY_Rk/s400/DSC_0494.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Halfway to the top! Right about here the "path" became even less of a path, and none of the snow was melted. Needless to say, none of us was wearing the best shoes for the adventure, although no one fell!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_gbMoNBGdWUfdn7bWHSnf8xmfhRN-p_LyG6V3Lz1GNSQaNnEtPbMnpV2V4V9xdxi9NvFwPbYmJ5UkF3r5KaQxuXFv-beoAdKId-8d89z0tYN2LzGfJpNuTcmN3iuo0__NrqFAut6dTA/s1600/DSC_0497.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_gbMoNBGdWUfdn7bWHSnf8xmfhRN-p_LyG6V3Lz1GNSQaNnEtPbMnpV2V4V9xdxi9NvFwPbYmJ5UkF3r5KaQxuXFv-beoAdKId-8d89z0tYN2LzGfJpNuTcmN3iuo0__NrqFAut6dTA/s400/DSC_0497.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Almost there! Look how well the trees frame the monastery.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhueUrgwm6AmqpE-JMvFxtwgEIDDff5xq0dYosgCQyQwtMRkzWAGh63BwdSteEQoLOSFoX8D7jbCaB3rZw7GZrSc1PDlj0h6V76EdRgayPqdWfrc1PyUqgmWVQqYp2Mfodvn3f5Cue6GnA/s1600/DSC_0505.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhueUrgwm6AmqpE-JMvFxtwgEIDDff5xq0dYosgCQyQwtMRkzWAGh63BwdSteEQoLOSFoX8D7jbCaB3rZw7GZrSc1PDlj0h6V76EdRgayPqdWfrc1PyUqgmWVQqYp2Mfodvn3f5Cue6GnA/s400/DSC_0505.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">First view from the top. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWuW-oOQzClyJ0NZdPtJ9sxb63opdoigaEnBHL5UW-mtu2AjpWzdEI0Aa94HkX8QbUCbPLn6HTm7kMjWdVou2c_20xLFLJhOvr4TPjgDAC9W6rVlbscUNtq0-Od-kHVH99C52Ia-ToRAs/s1600/DSC_0513.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWuW-oOQzClyJ0NZdPtJ9sxb63opdoigaEnBHL5UW-mtu2AjpWzdEI0Aa94HkX8QbUCbPLn6HTm7kMjWdVou2c_20xLFLJhOvr4TPjgDAC9W6rVlbscUNtq0-Od-kHVH99C52Ia-ToRAs/s400/DSC_0513.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">There's the castle!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0Cxa48J0IvzD_trgt9S1jPf7z8JhHJQy7Q3gTzbdet4kVnwum2T5Z_V3OWMJNmJ4oqhVYEbQEvDQnT9-DjYDG9aQz_hDf5cpH6xlzKMKTdk5SBQQwIHlhbDGME2vi2d1KXme8d9CFOM/s1600/DSC_0515.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0Cxa48J0IvzD_trgt9S1jPf7z8JhHJQy7Q3gTzbdet4kVnwum2T5Z_V3OWMJNmJ4oqhVYEbQEvDQnT9-DjYDG9aQz_hDf5cpH6xlzKMKTdk5SBQQwIHlhbDGME2vi2d1KXme8d9CFOM/s400/DSC_0515.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">ME! (Duh) with the castle in the background, from the top of the Mountain of the Cross.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-eMkYe07ADyKcizXoKln-ifNlvhAw6wnyNATdFkMco9LFe6QCryqv9C5WzVkRPrwUsRmF2OQwCJFLIwFqFiPrm7KWdDeyjL1kb2HZAS5NvodmU4eWUMsBrKorib_bzb9KS65Yj4gn3II/s1600/DSC_0531.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-eMkYe07ADyKcizXoKln-ifNlvhAw6wnyNATdFkMco9LFe6QCryqv9C5WzVkRPrwUsRmF2OQwCJFLIwFqFiPrm7KWdDeyjL1kb2HZAS5NvodmU4eWUMsBrKorib_bzb9KS65Yj4gn3II/s400/DSC_0531.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Looking down on the old city of Český Krumlov from up at the monastery.<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKaSU3nY8cuyPFmmiqvuD5w0ys6Vm_I_6FaGj2jts4TzN7SmSIU9kuw0tkEN8hqz4kQobUpMP4s9UhPEP0P50MNpiMSP1RIoTJhf6gGMZhhn8588-MjVfjFMSYICBJ0yh49v9TAC-cyK8/s1600/DSC_0534.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKaSU3nY8cuyPFmmiqvuD5w0ys6Vm_I_6FaGj2jts4TzN7SmSIU9kuw0tkEN8hqz4kQobUpMP4s9UhPEP0P50MNpiMSP1RIoTJhf6gGMZhhn8588-MjVfjFMSYICBJ0yh49v9TAC-cyK8/s400/DSC_0534.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Let if be know that this view of the castle and church tower is what I got to look down upon while I almost got frostbite on my rear-end [yes, nature called while I was on top of the hill/mountain].</span><br />
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TWO OTHER THINGS:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXs3xtz-YVB9GQXGkrbx0jC1P5TJih_CGZbicvxdYtVT3q4czSrdBtSfTusAP1Pu3cSR33yTt0Mvsc7MreQ0zB_CvcbVxmWrOTc5yyJih_Z6jOiXZ_MCkkzy7MkD4FbZVnEytTfUzY0B4/s1600/IMG_4106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXs3xtz-YVB9GQXGkrbx0jC1P5TJih_CGZbicvxdYtVT3q4czSrdBtSfTusAP1Pu3cSR33yTt0Mvsc7MreQ0zB_CvcbVxmWrOTc5yyJih_Z6jOiXZ_MCkkzy7MkD4FbZVnEytTfUzY0B4/s320/IMG_4106.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">CET paid for dinner and two drinks per person (.5 L of beer is a standard drink) at the Eggenberg Brewery on Sunday night. They also promised "revelry and merrymaking" with a "live gypsy band." The music was a bit different than what I was expecting, based on the songs on <a href="http://www.putumayo.com/content/gypsy_groove_0">Puntamayo's <i>Gypsy Groove</i> CD</a>, and I'm pretty sure they just played the same song over and over again. Still, we had a lot of fun and everyone got up and started dancing.<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP_m4DtrVsam1_5JTYcXwIFZU2jVvVnqODWmnfz4FEd-Q8UWb7MpSqfL7g3ZlmI4XTCxXTg0h8gucmvYvUvUNneCRww8UE6QgF4NWdOWmaUluiVjsJzLyfPMLJZwp-T36zHSzizRs_2CY/s1600/DSC_0470.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP_m4DtrVsam1_5JTYcXwIFZU2jVvVnqODWmnfz4FEd-Q8UWb7MpSqfL7g3ZlmI4XTCxXTg0h8gucmvYvUvUNneCRww8UE6QgF4NWdOWmaUluiVjsJzLyfPMLJZwp-T36zHSzizRs_2CY/s400/DSC_0470.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><span style="font-size: small;">The door to a craft store. These are paint tubes in the shapes of fingers. Weird.</span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Český Krumlov, Czech Republic48.812028800000007 14.31613730000003748.728376300000008 14.154775800000037 48.895681300000007 14.477498800000037tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-23519150084625125082013-02-09T16:56:00.000-06:002013-02-09T16:56:24.959-06:00An Assortment of Unrelated Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've been doing a lot of wandering around the city, which I think is my favorite thing to do anywhere. There's so much more that you get to see when you just go walking around with no plans--you can go at your own pace, and duck into any building or side alley that seems promising. The other day, I stumbled upon an old (11th century) <a href="http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM6A9C_Rotunda_of_the_Holy_Rood_Rotunda_sv_Kre_Prague">rotunda</a> church, one of three in Prague--I'm going to try to figure out when they hold services, because I think it would be so cool! I've gotten to check out a lot of antique shops and bookstores with books to rival Princeton's rare books collection. The best part is turning down side streets that look straight but then I come out somewhere completely differently from where I expected and have to find my way home from there. Below are some pictures from some of the less obscure wanderings. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqn4Ww0z3GTlXMT2q0Helqp7tgxpCTvAiQiQlnbQ1f-4VUMxNuJm8O5P40TUVk6aQ8hJS05hwZKc2WSSx2CdgXkAGw__-dUVLC3cOPhLTF9ZmPfobGvnsRegHx3Bs_PLPo8syI-j9HTOI/s1600/IMG_4019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqn4Ww0z3GTlXMT2q0Helqp7tgxpCTvAiQiQlnbQ1f-4VUMxNuJm8O5P40TUVk6aQ8hJS05hwZKc2WSSx2CdgXkAGw__-dUVLC3cOPhLTF9ZmPfobGvnsRegHx3Bs_PLPo8syI-j9HTOI/s400/IMG_4019.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: left;">As I mentioned in a <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2013/02/playing-catch-up-bohemian-carnevale.html">previous post</a>, the </span><a href="http://www.myczechrepublic.com/czech_culture/czech_holidays/easter/masopust.html" style="text-align: left;">masopust</a><span style="text-align: left;"> celebrations of the</span><span style="text-align: left;"> Bohemian Carnevale are currently taking place in preparation for Mardi Gras and Easter, despite the fact that the country is pretty atheist. But I guess by this point it's sort of like Christmas in America: they've been doing it so long that they forgot the origins, and now it's so ingrained in society. I passed this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_slaughter#Czech_Republic">pig hanging</a> near one of the outdoor tchochke (spell check?) markets, and only realized later that it must be related to the masopust celebrations. <a href="http://youtu.be/ee8_qAtD7IY">Pig slaughters are a thing here.</a></span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihQ_CJuY8vYU4ngEM7zHThfOX-sFCACXGZZl3PBer0hU6s_am_AO5dYpE3XKaiv9HiKFrH12lKIT1hoKubtHGI6lFFSOBKXZgGKv03Z5XA_8xKK7lD_qj0nrxQB3XxPOpYd5aTEU2Pf3A/s1600/IMG_4020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihQ_CJuY8vYU4ngEM7zHThfOX-sFCACXGZZl3PBer0hU6s_am_AO5dYpE3XKaiv9HiKFrH12lKIT1hoKubtHGI6lFFSOBKXZgGKv03Z5XA_8xKK7lD_qj0nrxQB3XxPOpYd5aTEU2Pf3A/s400/IMG_4020.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In case you really wanted to see the other side of the pig....</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyzynGR0Zo4QIeivlILXN0bVkTJ9_xGztFsWkK5KSwxBqd5GvRLPt2UpPHF7SjHbRTlrp0DSAjVa1alz5t7P8aFEdg7pPNpViuGmoPJ7j_NPJktzLPKrv7-y_zbuAZbovLZ4fsm3DybS8/s1600/IMG_4023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyzynGR0Zo4QIeivlILXN0bVkTJ9_xGztFsWkK5KSwxBqd5GvRLPt2UpPHF7SjHbRTlrp0DSAjVa1alz5t7P8aFEdg7pPNpViuGmoPJ7j_NPJktzLPKrv7-y_zbuAZbovLZ4fsm3DybS8/s400/IMG_4023.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">According to the sign, this is the house where Kafka was born--it's right off the corner of the St. Nicholas Church on Old Town Square. Still can't figure out why the only indication of Kafka's birthplace is written in Hebrew; maybe they don't want non-Jews to know? It also doesn't seem to be very well marked or publicized in other places on the building. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7LA573KgtylvdmcrZOkfNYuoCxeruxobRpXzSip_sDmpOZiNB9DO1shaPUqLxSCvpEc-4B8-_WgdfK_qgK1r2s7ams2RSw5DfoT4N8-WhFrH3wU81u2NCDmkjHt2jmv2YMikmNDmsog/s1600/IMG_4024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7LA573KgtylvdmcrZOkfNYuoCxeruxobRpXzSip_sDmpOZiNB9DO1shaPUqLxSCvpEc-4B8-_WgdfK_qgK1r2s7ams2RSw5DfoT4N8-WhFrH3wU81u2NCDmkjHt2jmv2YMikmNDmsog/s400/IMG_4024.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sign outside some pub--that dude with a beer belly really makes you want to go there, right?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NlStgT560Z_-H4Mq0B4t5gBa3KvKFkHywJEaOTBeH-QjqPJdQ__sPdnsLohBuOUCIfX9fqylmn1GaVRQq6NhknS3PVr50Y2SCHhGyUbTBpS2e0fY5_lkkTbF9tjv2bRI-VX6ifZ2cHI/s1600/IMG_4028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NlStgT560Z_-H4Mq0B4t5gBa3KvKFkHywJEaOTBeH-QjqPJdQ__sPdnsLohBuOUCIfX9fqylmn1GaVRQq6NhknS3PVr50Y2SCHhGyUbTBpS2e0fY5_lkkTbF9tjv2bRI-VX6ifZ2cHI/s400/IMG_4028.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Walked past this 20-foot high door and did a double-take. Yes, those are fist-sized heads going all the way up. Some of them are turned at awkward angles, and it's really creepy. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmdfwT6SVQNGyWURUdscgs9zP8d4CibRrj1k2ko0LtdqC_q0Ffu4hA0fJfhpO1D7DOGIiTbAspCLOiI1Low3w-ZmPc_c6LnNvyAWGRW44KUYq8unJgkPcKmDiLYNcwEByCMyASMnHms4/s1600/IMG_4055.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmdfwT6SVQNGyWURUdscgs9zP8d4CibRrj1k2ko0LtdqC_q0Ffu4hA0fJfhpO1D7DOGIiTbAspCLOiI1Low3w-ZmPc_c6LnNvyAWGRW44KUYq8unJgkPcKmDiLYNcwEByCMyASMnHms4/s400/IMG_4055.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">One night last week I passed a sign that said "<a href="http://www.jazzrepublic.cz/en/">Jazz Republic</a>; free entry" and pointed to the subway entrance. I followed it and, low and behold, in the subway station, there's a great jazz club with live music and no cover every night! It's a funny place--mostly local Czech jazz musicians play there, but there's an American flag on the wall. The drinks are way overpriced, and it can get a bit smoky, but I've already been there twice and plan on going back soon.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii072P283KYbBJtOTZQIQ8fdkwVIlai04hKJF2QlchNhQ0aY2Zcesv-uztrzISuDAHWsyDbKu39QWcQzP6Y1b0N3r5S_VaqBs9dGS-4W13JxCk1As9abYIk2A5brZ59PH9hWyYkgdHMQ0/s1600/IMG_4060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii072P283KYbBJtOTZQIQ8fdkwVIlai04hKJF2QlchNhQ0aY2Zcesv-uztrzISuDAHWsyDbKu39QWcQzP6Y1b0N3r5S_VaqBs9dGS-4W13JxCk1As9abYIk2A5brZ59PH9hWyYkgdHMQ0/s400/IMG_4060.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The first REAL street art I've seen in Prague! The <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.cz/2013/01/an-official-walking-tour-of-prague.html">Lennon wall</a> is an exception, because it's basically designated as an area for street art. Other than that, the graffiti is pretty uninspired--mostly just words spray-painted haphazardly and without any artistic motivation. This was great, though. I found it on my wanderings near the river, a 4 minute walk from my apartment. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjApJsmaxjOhO8d3udCclbWkkaoGqeE_8n2Oriad_Z68TKqP58w8iqbQeCesigMVnFUpTqz1kcTampv-0pmDHg8ndhax4dhROjykWv2UsJtMx7JgMVBUgnktxQrELiewYtwgyMp6EosmmY/s1600/IMG_4065.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjApJsmaxjOhO8d3udCclbWkkaoGqeE_8n2Oriad_Z68TKqP58w8iqbQeCesigMVnFUpTqz1kcTampv-0pmDHg8ndhax4dhROjykWv2UsJtMx7JgMVBUgnktxQrELiewYtwgyMp6EosmmY/s400/IMG_4065.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Two good street art finds within 10 minutes of each other? Good day! This one is kind of funny--on the left it's a cow, the middle is an owl (I think? Maybe a fish?) and the right is a chicken.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnx6pes8Vg5MmzGIHASBfmzYRUlgEXkFz1qnUyiAiVEIFUq1eb24PZBmiqmWEpJXXAovvV0ocrM1WcIHEN-jfG0ngO8ing5x1FreEyaRgYpefhBgU9_TboOOj2ArEUaW-_OeJ0_hzSXE/s1600/IMG_4070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnx6pes8Vg5MmzGIHASBfmzYRUlgEXkFz1qnUyiAiVEIFUq1eb24PZBmiqmWEpJXXAovvV0ocrM1WcIHEN-jfG0ngO8ing5x1FreEyaRgYpefhBgU9_TboOOj2ArEUaW-_OeJ0_hzSXE/s400/IMG_4070.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And I finally made it to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_House">Dancing House</a>, which is also only a 9-minute walk from my apartment. It was designed by a Croatian-Czech architect in collaboration with Frank Gehry, which brings me to my latest theory: Frank Gehry is going to dictate everywhere I ever live for an extended period of time: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdiotalevi/2636871608/">Chicago's Millenium Park bandshell</a> is Gehry, as is the <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S22/11/40O68/?section=featured">Lewis Library at Princeton</a>, and now here in Prague! Gehry, tell me where to go next! (I guess he has to get something up in Israel, ex-post-facto?)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOXBnwVKKT5bJrAUwxPCTZLEZrZwJOE_4zDqnOKoyqm_7llpqbevx2b73m2FXIou7RDts4S8abATGzty2N2jGipFNqPl61bhzXqo31Wnr270LADTovAxWVYXEpnanMADc1wuPCByO7Ao/s1600/IMG_4068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOXBnwVKKT5bJrAUwxPCTZLEZrZwJOE_4zDqnOKoyqm_7llpqbevx2b73m2FXIou7RDts4S8abATGzty2N2jGipFNqPl61bhzXqo31Wnr270LADTovAxWVYXEpnanMADc1wuPCByO7Ao/s400/IMG_4068.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Some more of the Dancing House. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIysAB7Z49Yv6f4rhNqvLwEnsCAcX1baaNH6wPRm0rwN5423bvUzTAZJJJrVhuDU2yFPCsS63JBsY3jKQU2tcJ1A7a72KeY2x4HfU-yucLhPkI_YAlhD5CCmShvLT0QEfmfYOXWvcV9QI/s1600/IMG_4077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIysAB7Z49Yv6f4rhNqvLwEnsCAcX1baaNH6wPRm0rwN5423bvUzTAZJJJrVhuDU2yFPCsS63JBsY3jKQU2tcJ1A7a72KeY2x4HfU-yucLhPkI_YAlhD5CCmShvLT0QEfmfYOXWvcV9QI/s400/IMG_4077.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I just think it's so funny next to all the beautiful old baroque buildings.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfa3LzRfhuuG6iptbYzP0vWU2MMrUF66caADYjdZLkfTOD-uEREc4vcg8SYEzwbAVm_wzdxzLsEOQu1lEk0b8_n2C16vjhYaXnMQVY3RsPfxK_4EDbkNJUDN4tc7v5qq0jZdm2gPw2hlI/s1600/IMG_4086.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfa3LzRfhuuG6iptbYzP0vWU2MMrUF66caADYjdZLkfTOD-uEREc4vcg8SYEzwbAVm_wzdxzLsEOQu1lEk0b8_n2C16vjhYaXnMQVY3RsPfxK_4EDbkNJUDN4tc7v5qq0jZdm2gPw2hlI/s400/IMG_4086.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And one with the Vltava River--the Dancing House is on the end.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tomorrow we're going on an overnight trip to a medieval-era town called </span><a href="http://www.ckrumlov.info/docs/en/kaktualita.xml"><span style="background-color: #fbf7ed; text-align: justify;">Č</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">esk</span><span style="background-color: #fbf7ed; text-align: justify;">ý</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Krumlov</span></a>, which was described to me by one of my professors here as "the Disnleyland of small-town Bohemia," because its promoted by UNESCO and has thus made a point of catering to tourists. Still, I'm always up for castles and moats, and it should be a lot of fun!</div>
Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com1Prague, Czech Republic50.0755381 14.4378004999999849.749331600000005 13.79235349999998 50.4017446 15.083247499999981tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-62456674403261061872013-02-05T14:55:00.001-06:002013-02-05T14:55:30.978-06:00Playing catch-up: Bohemian Carnevale, the National Gallery, and the Charles Bridge at Twilight<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's been a rough week for me in terms of modern amenities: our apartment's hot water sort of exists sometimes, and my computer is currently "taking a break" (which might end up being permanent). No hot water is a good excuse for not showering, right? As for the computer issue, it's been a bit difficult but hopefully I'll be able to figure out in the next few days what my next step should be. Luckily, my roommate Vanessa is letting me use her computer, so I won't get any more behind on my blogging!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To make up for the delay in this post, it's extra long, super colorful, and jam-packed with videos (four of them!)!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoZY37hkB46VM67yQGiwJqGXY2vtN6saJiCBmkljTBYGcO2GU1c_w8RIL8m9ZOnomv81RR0jZdD32M-YHTR3znDYh2C_afoj7BNsWCYxmvFIbQR_5_DZ5za5Ix_8JalHX-NUHbgYVT8Dg/s1600/IMG_3435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoZY37hkB46VM67yQGiwJqGXY2vtN6saJiCBmkljTBYGcO2GU1c_w8RIL8m9ZOnomv81RR0jZdD32M-YHTR3znDYh2C_afoj7BNsWCYxmvFIbQR_5_DZ5za5Ix_8JalHX-NUHbgYVT8Dg/s400/IMG_3435.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There's a two-week long "<a href="http://www.prague.net/bohemian-carnevale">Bohemian Carnevale</a>" going on right now that apparently is a vestige of when Czechs were actually a religious (Catholic) nation. It's basically, as I understand it, a huge celebration leading up to Lent. In practice, it's a huge party with lots of parades and costumes and masks and performances. These "horses" were among my favorite--I'm not really sure how they work because, as you can see, the legs of the people "riding" the "horses" are on the outside of the horse...so I'm not sure what's connected to the stilts! There's definitely not another person inside there. Thoughts?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsnQ-D1ITNZofoLi8t-ufPIdomRR6ORX03dnUseDhbrvjw7F9qJJ05uB7Jl6bDd1a_D0C4SFo0Nd4LUDvZis0Stq2DlIuvcsiNflJuUGuVU3PkVKDrGahU35ip48kJkCxEcqfj_MMiUvk/s1600/IMG_3542.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsnQ-D1ITNZofoLi8t-ufPIdomRR6ORX03dnUseDhbrvjw7F9qJJ05uB7Jl6bDd1a_D0C4SFo0Nd4LUDvZis0Stq2DlIuvcsiNflJuUGuVU3PkVKDrGahU35ip48kJkCxEcqfj_MMiUvk/s400/IMG_3542.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Petting my favorite horse--we match!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vu0ZO1pj8nI" width="480"></iframe><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">They really do a good job of imitating the way that real horses look when they walk; I'm still impressed when I watch this video.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHW6aBxqhZtjRyM1CX7lVLt8R39W1zaSyoVY7-1brm8KPZ-cxeq-IiKPBcoQCheTQ3Zj1v1SAiK8SFUUXWUo-HkdJ-sVHH6WPkIwwEKLR53i3_fZHJxUBY_mmgm49oJB_Ilf4R81TJRv0/s1600/IMG_3561.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHW6aBxqhZtjRyM1CX7lVLt8R39W1zaSyoVY7-1brm8KPZ-cxeq-IiKPBcoQCheTQ3Zj1v1SAiK8SFUUXWUo-HkdJ-sVHH6WPkIwwEKLR53i3_fZHJxUBY_mmgm49oJB_Ilf4R81TJRv0/s400/IMG_3561.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">High-five for the shorty!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9_dL8-8WaBPVxrijb40CsJKK0QTv9y0AdJkUzFkNg4Zf2uGcRKtVIc8vAkCo5Nukt4-lpedB-BODSWz6JpCkicpCefnQyat2BSVrbo4L4hwX47nV18BrWxkZS_l7ylmPLSkgZ4TuFoY/s1600/IMG_3492.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9_dL8-8WaBPVxrijb40CsJKK0QTv9y0AdJkUzFkNg4Zf2uGcRKtVIc8vAkCo5Nukt4-lpedB-BODSWz6JpCkicpCefnQyat2BSVrbo4L4hwX47nV18BrWxkZS_l7ylmPLSkgZ4TuFoY/s400/IMG_3492.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Low-five for the super-shorty :)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This was probably the weirdest thing I've seen so far. The program for the Carnevale advertised a "racing of the golden pigs." I was <b>really</b> hoping that there would be real (golden) pigs set loose in Old Town Square. Alas, golden pigs are probably as rare as red heifers. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Just thought this was really cute and/or belonged in some sort of weird absurdist magazine or something like that. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">They are literally running across the square with pig heads on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I really wanted to dance with the bear, but I was too nervous to cut in.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjUYtgMPruE-OJGEMXw8ex-n9pYGWXQAURJH_0PaSCvhWwvelVMBgZK0mX4QfRmLE8bB7UrODvv2bcbRz2rkdPSI55RiY9tdBbha-dC7gdttU_Uy6dx-G8XXXN_BUin-bFfaoe3MptK24/s1600/IMG_3548.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjUYtgMPruE-OJGEMXw8ex-n9pYGWXQAURJH_0PaSCvhWwvelVMBgZK0mX4QfRmLE8bB7UrODvv2bcbRz2rkdPSI55RiY9tdBbha-dC7gdttU_Uy6dx-G8XXXN_BUin-bFfaoe3MptK24/s400/IMG_3548.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I guess there can only be one sun, and since the real one wasn't shining, this really tall one on stilts took over (with the astronomical clock tower in the background).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6iJe9m1RKBMR6K3afG8NVCE7AfMf4eNKlFFDppbgsrG49DOnBTwA4WMpLGF7u-rqEwNvb2x1RieRZxUoaERnvsyi2IqCTAmeQWoU7vzEL4ICTRpVUjpqaFnh3fMh3Nmni9JfsJ7J49tc/s1600/IMG_3928.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6iJe9m1RKBMR6K3afG8NVCE7AfMf4eNKlFFDppbgsrG49DOnBTwA4WMpLGF7u-rqEwNvb2x1RieRZxUoaERnvsyi2IqCTAmeQWoU7vzEL4ICTRpVUjpqaFnh3fMh3Nmni9JfsJ7J49tc/s400/IMG_3928.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">As advertised on Facebook :)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik7GoxTOuQT19yKTl-4IWAfT4uc7IqNva7RKfBb_YJlMkWd5S6-rfZ_WQNuvsQ9WcrZL39aCLopwTQgBnP9_mZ7pQ17oDkE1_3vsF7basmFRyhwAElVfREMW55p-9kEDUXSepCvSWh_Xs/s1600/IMG_3935.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik7GoxTOuQT19yKTl-4IWAfT4uc7IqNva7RKfBb_YJlMkWd5S6-rfZ_WQNuvsQ9WcrZL39aCLopwTQgBnP9_mZ7pQ17oDkE1_3vsF7basmFRyhwAElVfREMW55p-9kEDUXSepCvSWh_Xs/s400/IMG_3935.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Classic tourist picture, since everyone should have one. I'm really good at asking strangers to take pictures of me. </span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVJG58kkJRYBBcvLwNCf7HtnznKJAUASSr7Ndrs2pyz2DTvlqJU5UltvyvfojEzOWMujIf39CIt4eX9P3ZfEqjWRRKU2BTzgB1pl1JAlKJ6t4pFxgnBK3rcYDtmx51ezibRs4-pdcrhI/s1600/IMG_3948.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVJG58kkJRYBBcvLwNCf7HtnznKJAUASSr7Ndrs2pyz2DTvlqJU5UltvyvfojEzOWMujIf39CIt4eX9P3ZfEqjWRRKU2BTzgB1pl1JAlKJ6t4pFxgnBK3rcYDtmx51ezibRs4-pdcrhI/s400/IMG_3948.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This weekend, all of the branches of the National Gallery (seven buildings in total, I think) were free. I still haven't really figured out why, but I didn't argue. Instead, after coffee with my Czech roommate Zuzana (of Belgian chocolate fame) I walked her to the train station because it was a beautiful crisp winter day with the first blue sky I've seen since being here. Then I headed out to the Sternberg and Schwartzberg Palaces in the Prague Castle complex, both of which are branches of the National Gallery. For the first time, I brought Aunt Emily's camera with me and got to play around with it a bit, though I have a lot to learn!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfcDzVvAaoU_X8X5IrfyaUMeuCwgm1ifHajdpyJXv-YDG5xSq0UhmEB7rcMXYH1nmbiDbcA3hm2yoTf0izP66zOSUS2f58fjHzCSEAvCPRPoGxnYlXqCWl3gG6E4AVpm5D1RdDn6GfelM/s1600/DSC_0151.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfcDzVvAaoU_X8X5IrfyaUMeuCwgm1ifHajdpyJXv-YDG5xSq0UhmEB7rcMXYH1nmbiDbcA3hm2yoTf0izP66zOSUS2f58fjHzCSEAvCPRPoGxnYlXqCWl3gG6E4AVpm5D1RdDn6GfelM/s400/DSC_0151.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The view from the top of the Prague Castle complex. Red roofs have cleared a spot in my heart right there next to beautiful doors. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg36zki5jUq1RqxttZkjH-eLnXyFbgnc89x3BLBVGl0tpq7bhPEP2pctE9De5IiAZ6PTlFzaDkhgA5clBm8Sf3yjBFGGUn-2M8JwqbRmBCT9lP5m-RKxS2aZer0VOcXtQjyOzKHxxpvSWA/s1600/DSC_0054.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg36zki5jUq1RqxttZkjH-eLnXyFbgnc89x3BLBVGl0tpq7bhPEP2pctE9De5IiAZ6PTlFzaDkhgA5clBm8Sf3yjBFGGUn-2M8JwqbRmBCT9lP5m-RKxS2aZer0VOcXtQjyOzKHxxpvSWA/s400/DSC_0054.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the first building in the Castle complex, complete with guards outside and a beautiful view of the city below. I didn't realize how surreal it looked until I saw the picture on the screen.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz9fC6j_vvtEqhv6kR0jfeM1afw8_M6arzAaKBWhFuMmJmYPf-XtphgvfldnZitd0OXVuSbHqpW2CQ4ZewhLHAKs0GarzSoiauLuuDDypiTou0hivQQ86OBvgR3E6H2NMBVx1FO6l-fe0/s1600/DSC_0124.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz9fC6j_vvtEqhv6kR0jfeM1afw8_M6arzAaKBWhFuMmJmYPf-XtphgvfldnZitd0OXVuSbHqpW2CQ4ZewhLHAKs0GarzSoiauLuuDDypiTou0hivQQ86OBvgR3E6H2NMBVx1FO6l-fe0/s400/DSC_0124.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In the Schwartzberg Palace, I was very pleasantly surprised when I walked into one of the gallery rooms and heard notes of music wafting through the air. Then, of course, I saw the crowd, and pushed my way to the front of the room so I could see what was going on. Still not sure why there was a concert in the gallery, but I'm not complaining! It was beautiful background music for looking at the art. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There was also dancing!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmtau7C5kFvU6iMUknTs9hW_tbnJM5umpUqWQzFd9qo8UJrerS2m5KdalYNsDmHDm3zhmTFSEgbBNz7Y8lR4bg7thrKuWaYWm8EYtn9ND9-1K4YDHDQlfxBIiHYWxwcDOWI-VyMfrg0hA/s1600/DSC_0086.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmtau7C5kFvU6iMUknTs9hW_tbnJM5umpUqWQzFd9qo8UJrerS2m5KdalYNsDmHDm3zhmTFSEgbBNz7Y8lR4bg7thrKuWaYWm8EYtn9ND9-1K4YDHDQlfxBIiHYWxwcDOWI-VyMfrg0hA/s400/DSC_0086.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Coolest thing ever: a spork (middle) from the 17th century! And it's foldable! Someone want to get this for me for my next hiking trip?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVlMdYqCQMoLBVb95ZsggFYHxkzyOu3aqLoXh0xbnejKDjB7M_klsvu2BOGOb_gtRcoLJG6VVezRBe0AIQd7dtlqBpDEOh7aML-wW0uCtfLCewfFb5vHka7qkqvEWhUUTzgoNB2RqVUj0/s1600/DSC_0134.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVlMdYqCQMoLBVb95ZsggFYHxkzyOu3aqLoXh0xbnejKDjB7M_klsvu2BOGOb_gtRcoLJG6VVezRBe0AIQd7dtlqBpDEOh7aML-wW0uCtfLCewfFb5vHka7qkqvEWhUUTzgoNB2RqVUj0/s400/DSC_0134.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Upon leaving the gallery, I saw a huge line and figured I should get in because whatever they were waiting to see was probably cool. Finally I got the woman in front of me to explain, using hand motions and sparse English (felt a little like being a Chalutzim counselor) that the attic of the palace had recently been restored and contained the collection of Czech armory. This is the guns/rifle case...you can't really see any of the guns in this picture, but I thought the reflection was really cool. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkkPjK5C5uv0jSLSYYcY55u8r5IEW172GssHdK7cyuCzpvL-8K3ps8sQ1BWNgefx_fwuVRUfBdMnqXT-DGOm4sfBNHtn18M_6c-wgpG_R-F8UgXo020zeuz__AW9uuYJY1DP0MpvsmPA/s1600/DSC_0158.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkkPjK5C5uv0jSLSYYcY55u8r5IEW172GssHdK7cyuCzpvL-8K3ps8sQ1BWNgefx_fwuVRUfBdMnqXT-DGOm4sfBNHtn18M_6c-wgpG_R-F8UgXo020zeuz__AW9uuYJY1DP0MpvsmPA/s400/DSC_0158.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Instead of taking the tram back from the Castle, I decided to walk because it was still beautiful out and the sun was about to set. I passed this adorable little bakery that looks as authentic as it professes to be, though it's right by the Charles Bridge so who knows.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05dTIFw_mR8D8cElgadVIRuRy0bFADSlR2Jl-897kI7GV-F0SqfM5MTysnsS55OEHX8aPOTdiryqQLQX-65cWfDw0ZyC1Kuh93gEHZriqQMQRpHzslQNYEXD7NwyYJPsJ0KdMyMhUI-s/s1600/DSC_0191.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05dTIFw_mR8D8cElgadVIRuRy0bFADSlR2Jl-897kI7GV-F0SqfM5MTysnsS55OEHX8aPOTdiryqQLQX-65cWfDw0ZyC1Kuh93gEHZriqQMQRpHzslQNYEXD7NwyYJPsJ0KdMyMhUI-s/s400/DSC_0191.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Looking east from the Charles Bridge.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5WX-oVu2U8-87vwfbR-evXXFz-zx2ewzaZhjdFGbQuiltJv0ZaGuo5ywts9AKHV2b7nrFGklEBMIhUecIDgSr0B776Qt-3MUlSArZEoAlgzuXiXtTnh5Fd9rqAL54g4bsKd6no08_y_I/s1600/DSC_0227.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5WX-oVu2U8-87vwfbR-evXXFz-zx2ewzaZhjdFGbQuiltJv0ZaGuo5ywts9AKHV2b7nrFGklEBMIhUecIDgSr0B776Qt-3MUlSArZEoAlgzuXiXtTnh5Fd9rqAL54g4bsKd6no08_y_I/s400/DSC_0227.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Prague Castle at twilight</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-wSgRztppm2l4hqFo7_UtBZ9VUA_Wo5OW5pylJ_BuKhCBvstUoI02dSJq7qzr-Yx2beSHC_vaEqi65CNxqEhQ_Ruhk5eVkFPk_I9DjNkXBZsVk_eQO-lKmhKYq36ipyciQtLtUb7hOk/s1600/DSC_0240.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-wSgRztppm2l4hqFo7_UtBZ9VUA_Wo5OW5pylJ_BuKhCBvstUoI02dSJq7qzr-Yx2beSHC_vaEqi65CNxqEhQ_Ruhk5eVkFPk_I9DjNkXBZsVk_eQO-lKmhKYq36ipyciQtLtUb7hOk/s400/DSC_0240.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">From the Charles Bridge</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4ycoW96AUTXZMr1glyk59LvP5jZXIfXr-QLskdZXlbkL3W11B6CWuc3RaeV63aMzxFBoFYYaMRRWYs0owWxS5r-IGf_ARtaspayhhpb0e7vgz14dxz5pLOVXkCSwUQesR9-JZelSdjQ/s1600/DSC_0248.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4ycoW96AUTXZMr1glyk59LvP5jZXIfXr-QLskdZXlbkL3W11B6CWuc3RaeV63aMzxFBoFYYaMRRWYs0owWxS5r-IGf_ARtaspayhhpb0e7vgz14dxz5pLOVXkCSwUQesR9-JZelSdjQ/s400/DSC_0248.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">With one of the Charles Bridge statues in the foreground</span></td></tr>
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And, of course, a shoutout to Charlotte Sall--thank you for being my first Skype date since I've been here!</div>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com2Prague, Czech Republic50.0755381 14.4378004999999849.749331600000005 13.79235349999998 50.4017446 15.083247499999981tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-41841449887794974832013-02-01T09:17:00.001-06:002013-02-01T09:18:14.830-06:00Serendipity: Jazz in Old Town Square<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yesterday we went on a tour of the Jewish Quarter, but I pretty much have no pictures because, as our tour guide said, "Jews are stingy and they want you to buy postcards, so they don't allow pictures in the synagogues."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was nice to go on an official tour and to learn some of the history, but we sort of breezed through the five of the six synagogues that still exist (most of which are museums) so I'm going to go back when I can spend as much time as I want.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTpULVo7XOulkcurY0vvY7HePTd0OvqwSUx57B1uq6yioCWU4RAV70qgFFLgjJ8CyK4ANSa_9b6xa5BY4tbqpoIpGU6JneuUEx9u7PqDZzwJkRjW-TgoJ_UJZyWudXi6sU95UMU47ImaA/s1600/IMG_3348.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTpULVo7XOulkcurY0vvY7HePTd0OvqwSUx57B1uq6yioCWU4RAV70qgFFLgjJ8CyK4ANSa_9b6xa5BY4tbqpoIpGU6JneuUEx9u7PqDZzwJkRjW-TgoJ_UJZyWudXi6sU95UMU47ImaA/s400/IMG_3348.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the Old Jewish Cemetery. The first record of Jews in Prague dates back to the 13th century I think, and there's something like 12,000 headstones at the cemetery. As you can see from this picture they're all stacked one right on top of another. That's because people are actually buried "bunk-bed" style, and I think there's five layers of graves that built up over the centuries.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After the tour I went to find the post office to mail Naomi her birthday postcard (second time's the charm, I'm hoping--I forgot to write her address on the first one). On my way, I passed through Old Town Square and decided to hang out for a while to listen to this great blues-y jazz group that had set up there. The vocalist has the raspy blues voice down-pat! (If you go to around 1:10 in this video, you'll get to see a "tour" of the Square). </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">There must have been something going on, because in another part of the square I found this guy playing with fire.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I realized that it was only ten minutes to the hour, so I stuck around to watch the astronomical clock do its thing, which was pretty cool. And then I stayed listening to the jazz band for another half hour or so until it started drizzling.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last night I made challah dough, and today I baked them. I have yet to taste them, but the honey-egg glaze I made for the top made them toasty-brown--hoping that'll compensate for the ridiculously long time I let the dough rise because of class! And yes, I only made three--that tray is how wide our oven is and we have only one tray. Shabbat shalom!</span><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">A note about Czech class: I'm really enjoying it, and am actually writing down some of the activities the teacher is having us do because I think they'd transfer really well to teaching Hebrew! I feel like I'm picking it up pretty quickly, which is nice, and yesterday I asked for directions in Czech....I didn't get a chance to see if I understood them, since the guy just pointed on a map. But today our class went to a restaurant together and we had to order in Czech. I felt kind of bad for the waiter, but our teacher said she warned him. </span></div>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Prague, Czech Republic50.0755381 14.4378004999999849.749331600000005 13.795100499999981 50.4017446 15.08050049999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-58666491324065116672013-01-30T15:28:00.000-06:002013-02-01T08:52:49.670-06:00An Official Walking Tour of Prague<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I lucked out--my official tour of Prague was today, in the partly-cloudy-but-increasingly-sunny 50 degree warmth; much nicer than earlier this week, when the other group went!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We started off the tour looking up at the top of <em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square--though I'm not sure how "</em><em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Václavské" turned into "Wenceslas" in English) looking at the main branch of the National Museum (apparently, this weekend all seven branches have the entrance fee waived! Hopefully I'll get to one or two of them). </em></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is looking down from Wenceslas Square, which is in the heart of "New Town," built by King Charles IV (he's recurring theme) around 1348. It's called "New Town" because it was new in comparison to "Old Town," which dates back to the 10th century, I believe. At one point, the Square was a horse market. Later, it became the site of all popular uprisings and protests in Prague; in 1969, Jan Palach set himself on fire there to protest Communism a few months after the Prague Spring. In 1989, the Velvet Revolution that overthrew Communism in Prague kicked off there. About 500,000 protesters gathered in the Square then. Now it's just a commercial shopping area--complete with a Starbucks and a McDonald's. Pay attention to the horse statue of Saint Wenceslas because in the next picture...</span></em></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">it's upside down! This sculpture/hanging statue is in the atrium of the Lucerna Palace shopping area, that was actually built by Vaclav Havel's father (grandfather?) and is still owned by the family [I think]. It's meant to be a parody of sorts of the horse/Saint Wenceslas (which is apparently the English of Vaclav. Then why don't we call the former president Wenceslas Havel? Who knows.) statue from the top of Wenceslas Square. David <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">Černý</span> is the artist, and the dead/upside-down horse is generally considered to be symbolic of the end of Communism.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Old Town City Hall (as opposed to the New Town City Hall, which is half a block from my apartment, and has since been replaced by the New City Hall in Old Town) at the heart of <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">Staré Město (Old Town). Old Town goes back to the 9th century. That was a really, really, really long time ago. </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Among the most iconic parts of Prague--aside from the Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge--is the astronomical clock on the side of the Old Town City Hall. It rings every hour on the hour (we missed it by about 15 minutes. Good thing I'm here for 4 months!), and the little skeleton on the top right dings his bell. The clock includes a ring that tells time according to the old Czech 24-hour method, Roman numerals for the way we tell time, and then some other outdated ancient method that I can't remember right now. There's also a ring with the Zodiac signs. And then below the clock is a full calendar of "<a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_days_in_the_Czech_Republic" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #663366; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start; text-decoration: initial;" title="cs:svátek">svátek</a>," or Name Days, which are a big deal here, although lots of people are now giving their kids non-traditional names.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7y00BBNpEt07gunFNGbaZTzACY27itQwlHWvYsuxeuh4ETmzI-Ufd8pkGYz8mzW0PWu4YZvRkizl6LEYkZi2b4IKwZHSspIamPRanuLM33sBtynwuscSJTihSbAs6Tr5hmObbBrKgzfk/s1600/IMG_3223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is a view of the Prague Castle from right at the beginning of the Charles Bridge. The Prague Castle complex (it's not just the castle-looking thing, but also all the buildings around it) is where government operations take place even today; the president works from the castle-looking thing, even though his power is secondary to that of the Prime Minister who works from the small-ish white building all the way on the right. But, the President chooses the Prime Minister. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Closer-up of the Prague Castle. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Though the sky looked like it was threatening to rain, luckily it didn't, and the color was beautiful against the rusted-reds of the roofs.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">One of the many statues on the Charles Bridge named for, you guessed it, King Charles IV! Imagine having a city where almost every prominent building/structure/institution was named after you...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Peeked in past a wrought-iron gate and saw this old mill with a funny-looking goblin dude looking over it.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">(Galya and Noa, this one's for you!) A tribute to John Lennon on the Lennon Wall--yes, it's that Lennon, not the other Lenin. I'll have to go back with a Sharpie so I can leave my mark!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On the way up to the castle complex! The building on the top right of this picture is the Schwarzenberg Palace; today it houses a baroque art collection and belongs to the state. Historically, however, it belonged to the family of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/world/europe/czech-prince-schwarzenberg-runs-a-punk-campaign.html?_r=0">Karel Schwarzenberg</a>, who just lost the presidential election, to the dismay of many liberals. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Looking down at Prague from the top of the castle complex!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJ9WBvxoT6QbWSuweijGo8cFR5980SOZCXqa7RPpGrahgqxgXTHAS6qMNct_IxjYHFP3tS2Ux7InxLqbJd7eX3Mp4Mfkn-54qfx_6Ynw5riVziAajLHJblgv_IbqyNKNcpKGKVg1eLHA/s400/IMG_3280.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And again.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5GYfmbxFZHc-lVmMgM1lopV-5Wo_UsQXzHKVzB98kosaSe8zN48KChVX1iJYySUabXazFFVRRR4_NCwt3IE40QHDD4l_rvb7bZvYcKlw2KcanzoKfOBkTZfntLNfgAOtZaIyEGhv1wco/s400/IMG_3282.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The entryway to the president's compound. The statues on top of the gate are kind of terrifying--one is a guy about to stab someone, and the other looks like it's a guy playing Quidditch and about to use the bludger bat to block a ball from smashing his face, but actually he's about to use the bludger bat to beat someone. Other than that... the guards are part of the military, and switch every hour. Like the palace guards at Buckingham Palace, they don't smile.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Entryway into the second courtyard of the Castle compound. I lost track of how many courtyards there were, but it was a lot.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnqUuK6c5-cmfUnctRnQTyaBMp8Ssz4W71es5a2mB8ZOb1rGgrri4s3syDkYjVkkW5EMdMXMOjKfpGUJLf4g_7QMXQKff4X2BAr__lvJXebSmlNCYp5mcCcVLkcRYL2FUgxo4QYBLPzU/s400/IMG_3294.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ellie wins the prize of being the first (intentionally-photographed) human to make an appearance on my blog! This is in front of the St. Vitus Cathedral, built in the 1340s, which is also in the Castle complex. It's enormous. We walked past the side of the cathedral to get to the entrance (those doors aren't actually open to the public) and the gargoyles peed/spat down collected rainwater on us!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Stained glass in the St. Vitus Cathedral painted (!) by Alfons Mucha, the Czech Art Noveau painter.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEoO1OS6d5fOlB9WFc_IG2UDBhkrL1jf6zhF4yl7PHtAg4WhfwPXQREmJ0MHw_LimCZvEdk6QRmT2vydlPuAHoflbOo3OvcOtefP4nYzFS0jqYiTpAKMeMVbdcqP0DQAvhMFT239ZIfK4/s1600/IMG_3306.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">More stained glass, not painted by Mucha. Every five--which happens to fall this year--the crown jewels are put on display to the public. I just might have to brave the long lines to snag a peak!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Side exterior of the St. Vitus Cathedral. If you look closely, you'll see that there are actually two clocks--the top one tells you the hour, and the bottom one tells you the minute.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6J7Kv7xyxEvo7FDdcbuIco7_b4v9zwfRGo7eZaAVULbKvYwxFizEteKSJirbGx0ojb80K5Pz_pWiW7H6QM7cb6CVlIV6nIf3wzP7YXHF5muGW_7teG-2kZTc2wC5Aj3CT-06DzW-FMM/s400/IMG_3322.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This picture is meant to illustrate the contrast between the old part of the cathedral and the new part. One the right side of the picture you can see the blackened exterior of the building, which is actually from the original struture in the 14th century. On the right the exterior is much cleaner, and was built/restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. The gold-painted mosaic, however, is original I believe.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi6J7Kv7xyxEvo7FDdcbuIco7_b4v9zwfRGo7eZaAVULbKvYwxFizEteKSJirbGx0ojb80K5Pz_pWiW7H6QM7cb6CVlIV6nIf3wzP7YXHF5muGW_7teG-2kZTc2wC5Aj3CT-06DzW-FMM/s1600/IMG_3322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">AND NOW FOR A CHANGE OF PACE, SOME OF MY FAVORITE DOORS SO FAR:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEU47BGoh9n8QluMws4e-qnUCdy5EWPrKBmg7A14IW0wtJvzbqBLxmdupZO33pV9PwwD7oMkNnB1HrB63rYXg6RIZjozlZqfkg294XS9japyQW8GOt1nvD4OFN9FeSP6uk7e7eCKWIL0Y/s1600/IMG_3212.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEU47BGoh9n8QluMws4e-qnUCdy5EWPrKBmg7A14IW0wtJvzbqBLxmdupZO33pV9PwwD7oMkNnB1HrB63rYXg6RIZjozlZqfkg294XS9japyQW8GOt1nvD4OFN9FeSP6uk7e7eCKWIL0Y/s400/IMG_3212.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Tucked away in the back of a garden next to a pre-school that used to be a church. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7y00BBNpEt07gunFNGbaZTzACY27itQwlHWvYsuxeuh4ETmzI-Ufd8pkGYz8mzW0PWu4YZvRkizl6LEYkZi2b4IKwZHSspIamPRanuLM33sBtynwuscSJTihSbAs6Tr5hmObbBrKgzfk/s1600/IMG_3223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7y00BBNpEt07gunFNGbaZTzACY27itQwlHWvYsuxeuh4ETmzI-Ufd8pkGYz8mzW0PWu4YZvRkizl6LEYkZi2b4IKwZHSspIamPRanuLM33sBtynwuscSJTihSbAs6Tr5hmObbBrKgzfk/s400/IMG_3223.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Next to the Old Town City Hall/astronomical clock building.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhkGFzLIh8DhF-R6rQ4FpwkOEhXcxEdxirUNbo0835ASL7ILANHkJzqHZcZKaIYRl_3OHKhyphenhyphenBmfY55x2vMmVO47AJ4tHWx1oZcki_TQ8-kpKJ_u_SCguCZHniB5hKm703a1DSYPd0O3k/s1600/IMG_3199.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhkGFzLIh8DhF-R6rQ4FpwkOEhXcxEdxirUNbo0835ASL7ILANHkJzqHZcZKaIYRl_3OHKhyphenhyphenBmfY55x2vMmVO47AJ4tHWx1oZcki_TQ8-kpKJ_u_SCguCZHniB5hKm703a1DSYPd0O3k/s400/IMG_3199.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I forget where I saw this.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFzevJFjq9JJVzFKK___qSJ9f3yCp6_amnDtgbPEjSVeEfFS52IZv5elevRjvmJERZk-3jewY6XE52_M0AGkjr30_Eq_a23wIzGVEm6fK7-CuCkH4ZaLrwJIpW2WUL6p7mlMAAGYAQ9Y/s1600/IMG_3260.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFzevJFjq9JJVzFKK___qSJ9f3yCp6_amnDtgbPEjSVeEfFS52IZv5elevRjvmJERZk-3jewY6XE52_M0AGkjr30_Eq_a23wIzGVEm6fK7-CuCkH4ZaLrwJIpW2WUL6p7mlMAAGYAQ9Y/s400/IMG_3260.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Next to the Lennon Wall.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZVeGmHbSsrkv3OIeXyD3po3kjyAwrcj6CpKm6v8EH8-t8-pBHpY7TmbGQzDxUt5qvvgn-yyyHpn33q2hP7Kpen4F8vYbQZxwG9HV6_ul3P9xhvnYUwtPkT9TItJ1ymm7_aqOW2BCd9uU/s400/IMG_3292.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">St. Vitus Cathedral.</span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Prague, Czech Republic50.0755381 14.4378004999999849.749331600000005 13.795100499999981 50.4017446 15.08050049999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-7079881184788369632013-01-27T15:52:00.000-06:002013-01-29T14:21:03.485-06:00An Unofficial Walking Tour of Prague (Read: Scavenger Hunt)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After getting through a few minutes of administrative details, the students from the three CET programs in Prague--Jewish Studies, Central European Studies, and Film Studies--were mixed up into 12 groups and sent out into the city with a map and a scavenger hunt list. The grand total of our walking distance was something between 5-6 miles (though that number is not exact; we did a lot of backtracking because the whole point of the scavenger hunt was to learn where things are, and we didn't necessarily know ahead of time. We also only took the metro one once, and for once stop.) Below are some of the pictures from things I saw today (and one picture not from today:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2cMWNo7fS6ULKIeY9egqUMxojxn6McC-TNCvBqE-DkgcH7t_tUoshuB5lcOngx2SHy9cOeSFVRO6o_WOiL0_itkkgG2OQOX_hw4kOOmMBN2uqASBtP454JH8YakmRwycGbOIO4pttho/s1600/IMG_3059.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2cMWNo7fS6ULKIeY9egqUMxojxn6McC-TNCvBqE-DkgcH7t_tUoshuB5lcOngx2SHy9cOeSFVRO6o_WOiL0_itkkgG2OQOX_hw4kOOmMBN2uqASBtP454JH8YakmRwycGbOIO4pttho/s400/IMG_3059.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the <a href="http://www.estatestheatre.cz/et_history.html">Estates Theatre</a>, one of the "branches" (?) of the Czech opera house. We went there because we were supposed to collect a leaflet from the Don Giovanni Puppet Opera (also "?"), but apparently we were totally wrong, because they thought we were crazy. We also originally went to the main opera house, which is pretty close to our program's home base, and they told us to go here. Understandably, they heard only the "Don Giovanni" part of our question, and not the "puppet" part. There's an ice skating rink in front of the Estates Theatre, which we contemplated ditching the rest of the scavenger hunt to enjoy. (Instead, we got lunch. Vegetable risotto, in case you're wondering. Not many vegetarian options, though I heard the goulash was wonderful!)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYLr0X6IDUwZKOX8AfKHT-VN6XQz2rexQWtXWxEyTj-njTXg-PwX9QkI1t8_KiQr4jZ36KZzLbi7c-vlOcHjY7VRI1Od9ET0VnboPxGNQD2FdT5HMAs6aJVTblr1H7K5i7wswxFSVnzQ/s1600/IMG_3044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYLr0X6IDUwZKOX8AfKHT-VN6XQz2rexQWtXWxEyTj-njTXg-PwX9QkI1t8_KiQr4jZ36KZzLbi7c-vlOcHjY7VRI1Od9ET0VnboPxGNQD2FdT5HMAs6aJVTblr1H7K5i7wswxFSVnzQ/s400/IMG_3044.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">(Not from today). This is the typical length of the escalators leading down into the subway stations. There's only three lines (all very easy to navigate), so I'm not sure whey they have to be so far underground. Also, people are very particular about escalator etiquette here: standers on the right, walkers on the left.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Bwt7FC1eszMH7d5jXCb4cLCeWD0qc03iS70_SlKHMIdQBPvcMYBQiZ1CqC4aSHz0Z3CX2nFZ9ef0_RkxQLUu6S_R7Smj-ResmvsPTv2O9ksRspA2Ik4rQzCxoXbHmAfypUio58tngwU/s1600/IMG_3057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Bwt7FC1eszMH7d5jXCb4cLCeWD0qc03iS70_SlKHMIdQBPvcMYBQiZ1CqC4aSHz0Z3CX2nFZ9ef0_RkxQLUu6S_R7Smj-ResmvsPTv2O9ksRspA2Ik4rQzCxoXbHmAfypUio58tngwU/s400/IMG_3057.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Very Communist deco above some hip soup restaurant.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKx-goCsaff6BYrMkE-VOyJ8BJC-6YzCeTTIeyDOuslfNQDK_c3jzLf9sIrVkq_rUbkSlxJ2ja6iHFYadTsrYrzZUFhGYTEl4NlN9Irw58Krtsy_Mi0uAEfX2SJSIc1_uMOCrMKr44ZY/s1600/IMG_3061.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKx-goCsaff6BYrMkE-VOyJ8BJC-6YzCeTTIeyDOuslfNQDK_c3jzLf9sIrVkq_rUbkSlxJ2ja6iHFYadTsrYrzZUFhGYTEl4NlN9Irw58Krtsy_Mi0uAEfX2SJSIc1_uMOCrMKr44ZY/s400/IMG_3061.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Door! (I love doors. When I get a chance to do some exploring on my own with the camera that Aunt Emily sent me I'm hoping to find the best doors in Prague!)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRJnuUwcs3S7D26ZZCc2pO93pQ2p_dnavdYJZfxTx1gBUcvZLyCVdxCEz14EYM4l92MNQ08cG-2rSlXdc-OxYJatMcu60oFHGuK2iO4oVD9rp8gwF4H9kcHJWhF1oOEtfK3N4VbFi5Dg/s1600/IMG_3065.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRJnuUwcs3S7D26ZZCc2pO93pQ2p_dnavdYJZfxTx1gBUcvZLyCVdxCEz14EYM4l92MNQ08cG-2rSlXdc-OxYJatMcu60oFHGuK2iO4oVD9rp8gwF4H9kcHJWhF1oOEtfK3N4VbFi5Dg/s400/IMG_3065.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://www.ceskafilharmonie.cz/en/">Rudolfinium</a> is the home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The statue in front is of Antonin Dvo<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px; text-align: start;">řák. We went here because each group was given a postcard with an unidentified landmark on it, and one of the tasks was to recreate the image on the postcard. The postcard my group got was of the Rudolfinium.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrX2VCxaD-_OVriwTB5gL8h_39E5cHXIQVQt0zLe01Qm_nSrXR07DpXLe9GU2Sc4dO8ebUhbfZO8_hwcHXwqV-ouwxsLNT9NtjR4fskK8PSoPB9s6IYkMS62w2gO8My4FQgmfCm0f1sI/s1600/IMG_3090.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrX2VCxaD-_OVriwTB5gL8h_39E5cHXIQVQt0zLe01Qm_nSrXR07DpXLe9GU2Sc4dO8ebUhbfZO8_hwcHXwqV-ouwxsLNT9NtjR4fskK8PSoPB9s6IYkMS62w2gO8My4FQgmfCm0f1sI/s400/IMG_3090.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Conveniently, the Rudofinium is right across the street from the old Jewish quarter and the Jewish burial grounds, etc</span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. One of the tasks was to collect a kippah from the synagogue. Though we didn't go into the museum (this picture, I think), I think that's part of the Wednesday tour that the Jewish Studies students are going on, and I plan on going back myself to explore the old Jewish quarter more extensively. </em></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZFQVzkvgFo5lTRv5sYrGLZvLjqIOky9x5qWqcgtBxtDT-mQGkByn2j6kNZxLWVeAcKT9v91z5xmGJ5pZPgUtqqZSfwMNi4uW7GpMX_TmV-C6vmaiiBCFDiVtuwmuqNfWAV9AvBjXBxMM/s1600/IMG_3075.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZFQVzkvgFo5lTRv5sYrGLZvLjqIOky9x5qWqcgtBxtDT-mQGkByn2j6kNZxLWVeAcKT9v91z5xmGJ5pZPgUtqqZSfwMNi4uW7GpMX_TmV-C6vmaiiBCFDiVtuwmuqNfWAV9AvBjXBxMM/s400/IMG_3075.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This funky snow dude was in the back "yard" of the Old New Synagogue.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIkbYJAjw3FkqhiTKF-zlQmbnzcGkmjXvqURvoXRDWHSkHbM9irwKWpfJKTnUwCklRT9KJFZ2gafcItvtM6vl4dVmc-1Cdl_b8JcGH8cJnEccSGTF9jyc7SXtB50LSX9DnTW13njah7M/s1600/IMG_3076.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIkbYJAjw3FkqhiTKF-zlQmbnzcGkmjXvqURvoXRDWHSkHbM9irwKWpfJKTnUwCklRT9KJFZ2gafcItvtM6vl4dVmc-1Cdl_b8JcGH8cJnEccSGTF9jyc7SXtB50LSX9DnTW13njah7M/s400/IMG_3076.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We thought we were really clever, and for some reason thought that Kafka was buried in the old Jewish cemetery right next to the Jewish Museum complex. (A picture of his grave was another item on the scavenger hunt list). Wrong. He's buried in the new Jewish cemetery. So that's another one for the to-do list. We also didn't get a chance to go into the cemetery because it costs money, but this view is from peeking over the high cement wall on the outside. I also plan on going back to explore the cemetery. I won't have class on Wednesdays after this week, so I'm hoping that will be my exploring day.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7D82hhcqpH4jt_VYx1UZghoY6JPUuVARqUOGnhF23TsfCFycChdqoR3G9hv_p_0csYSzx1KGUqZvKRFMgpHqD1I-Z9D1PR94gtieg6qNNUewvDOWxt17D0bxufr13QRLyHreegI1QSFs/s1600/IMG_3092.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7D82hhcqpH4jt_VYx1UZghoY6JPUuVARqUOGnhF23TsfCFycChdqoR3G9hv_p_0csYSzx1KGUqZvKRFMgpHqD1I-Z9D1PR94gtieg6qNNUewvDOWxt17D0bxufr13QRLyHreegI1QSFs/s400/IMG_3092.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Better view of the gravestones, all on top of one another.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWbIvbC8Vp4zazV7W25UsnTvCA62S7AlFo10vTZOzcnwOrSd2jGC_B2zwXb8tw6SSzjvv0K8lCspeKuJ3OlBStIVOIqiA-olOfe1nhmy2Wlk30CMq2KoBr6qvm7Oqof8Yg9oDKKHjMOM/s1600/IMG_3105.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWbIvbC8Vp4zazV7W25UsnTvCA62S7AlFo10vTZOzcnwOrSd2jGC_B2zwXb8tw6SSzjvv0K8lCspeKuJ3OlBStIVOIqiA-olOfe1nhmy2Wlk30CMq2KoBr6qvm7Oqof8Yg9oDKKHjMOM/s400/IMG_3105.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Still in the Jewish quarter. Not sure which synagogue this is. (Update: we think this is the Jewish Town Hall. Ricky is accountable if that's incorrect.)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoSsATPh0WhA8o7IsOBLe-FqMV4Xytq0hU_kPa9pJu0MyV0ZoZflklAk46t8iY6O1uOYia4Zf5xGs67ffAauMzny749-y7rruleVPyy8QfAsRZENv5uuIMSol8bC1iRl1dpZxBjxGTraw/s1600/IMG_3132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoSsATPh0WhA8o7IsOBLe-FqMV4Xytq0hU_kPa9pJu0MyV0ZoZflklAk46t8iY6O1uOYia4Zf5xGs67ffAauMzny749-y7rruleVPyy8QfAsRZENv5uuIMSol8bC1iRl1dpZxBjxGTraw/s400/IMG_3132.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Moving right along, this is in the middle of the Charles Bridge (and another item from our scavenger hunt list). For those among you who are non-Hebrew readers, the inscription above Jesus on the cross translates to "Holy Holy Holy, Lord of Hosts," and is originally from the book of Isaiah. It was apparently added to the top of the crucifixion in 1696 as a result of "improper court proceedings" against Elias Backoffen (according to the accompanying plaque), who was accused of "debasing the holy cross." The inscription was added to humiliate the Jewish community. (Love me some good old anti-Semitism?) </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHpN3cPEIWyzn02IIALrTelHPI2jw1xuy0MX91AUwSZZyw1DwF9fWJud9mXFvWFEOKzpEsCyW9dlPO2L2mYRle24QdellDkISguleLs1Eb4VFFiTksmJ9ktyWRqqEQXEZl8lQ64-Rytt0/s1600/IMG_3129.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHpN3cPEIWyzn02IIALrTelHPI2jw1xuy0MX91AUwSZZyw1DwF9fWJud9mXFvWFEOKzpEsCyW9dlPO2L2mYRle24QdellDkISguleLs1Eb4VFFiTksmJ9ktyWRqqEQXEZl8lQ64-Rytt0/s400/IMG_3129.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Pretty view of the buildings right next to the Charles Bridge.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcamG632C2UzmPJsgsqJpol9nVQnSTLMBXsurOtSoXotrg6KlCCX0WpCjKZDRNj453w121gWeIBGdoAsC3wf5oZX_78bsNhP8-vPpBKnzefkBPl6EOrQ66KafXY2R_sFIU8r06XKDeIpg/s1600/IMG_3140.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcamG632C2UzmPJsgsqJpol9nVQnSTLMBXsurOtSoXotrg6KlCCX0WpCjKZDRNj453w121gWeIBGdoAsC3wf5oZX_78bsNhP8-vPpBKnzefkBPl6EOrQ66KafXY2R_sFIU8r06XKDeIpg/s400/IMG_3140.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Looking out across the river from the Charles Bridge. Julie tells me this is THE Prague Castle. Guess I have to go explore!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_mcQu2FkHPh2KqwZADvrq1lODEMIq9nA0nO27asPvY1mTdOuTgcJ8zfKNayCAZhPX2TLRZnM_gdgnxg0jKcsrvo3VMacxr8QCjvg25JMNTXgpn0lNy2dIRNhfk2hxsc0k0IEgYCp4yJ0/s1600/IMG_3155.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_mcQu2FkHPh2KqwZADvrq1lODEMIq9nA0nO27asPvY1mTdOuTgcJ8zfKNayCAZhPX2TLRZnM_gdgnxg0jKcsrvo3VMacxr8QCjvg25JMNTXgpn0lNy2dIRNhfk2hxsc0k0IEgYCp4yJ0/s400/IMG_3155.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">After crossing the bridge, it feels like you're entering another century. The buildings are old, and colorful, and everything feels quaint and cute, although I'm sure it's all a tourist ploy.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNJhk_yr41p-gyoJtNa0FsSP46o2Eux6b0323IOIOwoG9XU4dAuewjPCA6c-koR3wiQiPdDFsF7rUzqTXiCpd8VfGHbT7L5nLdGqucCtALCo0is5-vRATtPw2Cq9MPHSav6AlJE-Fynh0/s1600/IMG_3170.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNJhk_yr41p-gyoJtNa0FsSP46o2Eux6b0323IOIOwoG9XU4dAuewjPCA6c-koR3wiQiPdDFsF7rUzqTXiCpd8VfGHbT7L5nLdGqucCtALCo0is5-vRATtPw2Cq9MPHSav6AlJE-Fynh0/s400/IMG_3170.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We hiked up a long and hilly path, with the lights of the Strahov monastery in the distance as our beacon. It was a nice last trek--it had started to snow lightly, the lighting was perfect, and we had joined up with another group. The monastery was founded in 1149 (!). A brewery was started there in the early 17th-century, and the brewery restaurant is where the entire group was meeting up for dinner. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apple strudel for dessert!</span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-42145284762632639992013-01-26T10:59:00.002-06:002013-01-27T15:54:28.358-06:00Šabat Šalom!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
For the first three weeks that we're here, <a href="http://cetacademicprograms.com/programs/czech-republic/jewish-studies-in-prague/">our program</a> has arranged for us to attend Kabbalat Shabbat (Friday evening) services at three of the <a href="http://www.synagogue.cz/">different synagogues in Prague</a>.</div>
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Last night we were supposed to go to the <a href="http://www.synagogue.cz/the-old-new-synagogue-page/about-the-synagogue/">Old-New Synagogue</a>, which is the oldest of them all. (I'll be able to write about more about the synagogue after we actually go on a tour, but for now all I can do is give that link). Except that plan failed when the services usually held there were moved to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Synagogue_(Prague)">High Synagogue</a>, because the heating in the Old-New Synagogue is not great and it was all of 15 degrees outside...and inside.</div>
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There were more women than men at services, though our program contributed about 6 of the women and a group of traveling Israelis about our age contributed another 5 or so. It was a nice service, and comforting that all the tunes were, for the most part, familiar. The d'var Torah was in Czech, translated into English after every paragraph. Still, very hard to understand. Afterwards we joined some community members for a delicious Shabbat dinner on the first floor of the synagogue, where it seems like they serve Shabbat dinner every week. Good to know. They also did a Tu B'shvat seder! (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_Bishvat">Tu B'shvat</a> is the Jewish new year for the trees. It's customary to eat fruit and nuts in celebration)</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is the facade of the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.synagogue.cz/jerusalem-synagogue-page/about-the-synagogue/">Jeruzalémská Synagogue</a>, which is only about 120 years old. I went there for services this morning with two friends; we had passed it last night, so getting there was pretty easy. It was quite an effort to go in, though--we were interrogated almost as much as the El Al flight attendants interrogate you when you go through security ("Why are you here?" Shabbat services, we should be on the list. "What list?" The Jewish studies list. "What did you do last night?" Go to Shabbat services at High Synagogue. "Why don't you have an ID?" (Even though I did): It's Shabbat and you don't carry on Shabbat, etc.) A combination of poor heating/insulation and poor attendance means that services are conducted in a small side chapel and not in the huge, beautiful, high-ceilinged main sanctuary, although you have to walk through there on the way to the women's section so we got to sneak a peak. (Tours are closed in the winter because it's freezing, so it really was a sneak peak!) Using one of their prayer books made me feel like a kindergartner, because I couldn't read any of the translations! But I think the transliteration helped, because I got to see how some of the letters are pronounced. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">One of the girls had met a Czech woman in Israel at her seminary a few years ago, and got us invited to their house for lunch, which was delicious and wonderful! It was one of those very long lunches, the kind that take four hours so you're full but feel like you're snacking the whole time instead of stuffing yourself. And there was a lot of fruit (fresh figs, dates, pomelo, persimmon (!), pineapple) for Tu B'shvat. It was a very funny meal, though: there were about 10 guests and everyone could speak different combinations of Czech, Hebrew and English--I think only one person knew all three. Of course I go to the Czech Republic and communicate with people in Hebrew! But once our Czech classes start (next week) hopefully I'll be able to say more than "ahoj." </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The walk back--both last night and this afternoon were freezing. This says 17 degrees, but I'm pretty sure it was colder. At least it's not windy like Chicago! And the future is looking bright--50 degrees by Wednesday? Sounds like vacation to me!</span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-43589184935077715922013-01-24T15:44:00.004-06:002013-01-24T15:46:29.548-06:00Ahoj! from the Czech Republic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So apparently the Czech Republic is as fond of Pirate Speak as the CJL is on Pirate Shabbat, because the way they say hello is "ahoj" (pronounced "ahoy.") But that's only hearsay, as I haven't actually started taking Czech classes yet. And because I only got here about eight hours ago, this post is less about Prague and the Czech Republic than it is about the process of getting here.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Monday night I had a final. Tuesday night I had a final. Wednesday afternoon I flew. Between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, I had wonderful friends who came to hang out with me and who helped me pack my entire room into the two bags I brought to Prague and the ten boxes that went into Princeton storage (special thanks to Anna!). Those wonderful friends also placed lots of surprise notes throughout my suitcase, which were really nice to read upon unpacking in Prague.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This picture is for Mom, who always likes to have pictures of Abby With All Her Stuff. This time it's not so much! I don't even have the backpack on my front... Luckily for me, I got to take the train with Julie and Michal. And Anna met us on the Dinky to say goodbye and Dylan ran from Cap for a movie-esque departure hug. You guys are the best!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Indian vegetarian food on the plane? Yes! (It was delicious--TwoD, it feels like I never left...).</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This should give you a good idea of how empty the plane was. There couldn't have been more than 70-100 people <b>total</b> on the plane, and it was one of those huge jumbo-jets. Despite taking over an entirely empty row for myself to lie down on, I couldn't really sleep, but on my second flight I crashed before we took off and woke up only when we landed. So I got 3.5 hours total of sleep in the past 57 hours...does that seem right? Entirely possible that my brain functions are not working probably after the lack of sleep.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">My layover was in Oslo. No, I did not sign any peace treaties. This photo was taken around 8:30am, and it was surprisingly light outside. I didn't get to leave the airport, but I did get to hear a decent amount of spoken Norwegian. Strange language, I tell you. For a while I was scared I wasn't going to be able to get to my plane, because the gate was at the end of a strange glass-walled pathway, and the glass door separating it from the rest of the gates in the pathway was closed and nobody was there to open it. When I traced the whole path back and found an airport employee, someone had apparently just asked her about it (in Norwegian) because her response to me was: "Well, it seems this is becoming a problem," after which she turned and walked away. Luckily, someone came to open then gate about 20 minutes later.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the Oslo airport, this is how employees get around. I saw two gate-checkers race each other down the glass-walled pathway, which was awesome. It's not just for getting around, though--see the newspapers? They're on a rack attached to that scooter, and the guy carries them that way! And you wonder why America is obese...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Okay, so no pictures of Prague/the Czech Republic yet, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to snap some (including of our apartment). We started orientation bright and early in the morning, and have got some Shabbat-y things planned for the evening.</span></div>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com3Prague, Czech Republic50.0755381 14.4378004999999849.749331600000005 13.795100499999981 50.4017446 15.08050049999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-78254344170420485562012-08-02T23:25:00.000-05:002012-08-04T10:44:46.965-05:00Neshoba County Fair: Mississippi's Giant HousepartyFor weeks, people around the office have been talking about the <a href="http://www.neshobacountyfair.org/">Neshoba County Fair</a>, an hour-and-a-half northeast of Jackson in Philadelphia, MS. (Mississippi also boasts its own Madison, Cleveland, Little Rock, and Paris).<br />
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But the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/garden/at-the-neshoba-county-fair-families-unite-and-come-unglued.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1&ref=style">Neshoba County Fair</a> is not your typical county fair. Sure, it's got a ferris wheel and prize-winning farm animals and abnormally large watermelons. It's also got <a href="http://aklionsky.blogspot.com/2012/06/cheap-gas-deep-fried-oreo-and-medgar.html">deep-fried Oreos</a>. But what sets it apart is that people actually live on the fairgrounds for the week of the festivities. And not in any old houses. There are these cabins that they live in--<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/08/02/garden/20120802-NESHOBA.html">about 600 on the property</a>--that get passed down from parent to child. They stay in the family line, and if you want one of them, you better marry in. They go for a lot of money but, get this, they are only occupied for the single week every year during which the fair takes place. People take a lot of pride in them, especially if your cabin is in the "Founder's Square" (the original square where the fair took place, where people started building them). They also take great care to decorate and personalize the (outsides) of the cabins, as you'll see below. Entire extended families come out for the year--even if they live nowhere near Mississippi anymore--and people cram as many as 25 people into the beds that litter the upper floor(s) of their cabins.<br />
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The other thing that sets the Neshoba County Fair apart is that it is, for lack of a better phrase, a haven of Republican politics [it's been called the Woodstock of Republicans]. Of the ten politicians who spoke, one was a democrat. The Secretary of State said, "I want to encourage ya'll to go out and vote for the Romney of your choice." And, since it's not a local-election year, nearly every other politician who spoke echoed that sentiment, touting Romney while flouting Obama. One said, "We want to make Washington [D.C.] like Mississippi." Perhaps he meant emulating the fact that Mississippi leads the country in obesity, diabetes and HIV, not to mention poverty...<br />
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Well, back to pictures. Can't let too much politics get into my blog (although there's plenty to go around in Mississippi!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The prize-winning watermelon in the "children's section" whatever that means. Not sure how much this one weighed, but you can see that it's pretty large. Passed one later on that weighed in at 160 pounds, I believe.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Good to know that "postering" is still a verb post-college. This almost rivals the most number of posters I've ever seen on a lamppost, but certain popular weeks on campus have even the Neshoba County Fair politician-lineup beat in that regard.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqwjZtTkO3zdjAEuC85i74nKdAZhX3Aid9HZ-SWGcG8FyI1CKZj_RfLVm4wqTTFOH-4xpOEvWvxgfl7CpBspTNqJdmzovVztfPPVmelVRoovTciTpn4lww54gTpttUBrtrU-Cl-nAqQI/s1600/IMG_1104.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqwjZtTkO3zdjAEuC85i74nKdAZhX3Aid9HZ-SWGcG8FyI1CKZj_RfLVm4wqTTFOH-4xpOEvWvxgfl7CpBspTNqJdmzovVztfPPVmelVRoovTciTpn4lww54gTpttUBrtrU-Cl-nAqQI/s400/IMG_1104.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Not-so-classic county fair. Some of the 600+ cabins that are occupied during (and only during) the week of the fair. As I mentioned above, people go through great pains to individualize their cabins, which get passed down through family lines. One person I met is the grandson of a man who was in the lumber-business in Philadelphia in the early years of the fair, so naturally he built a cabin. Still in the family!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9iXc2IniK1fb-DnguMZAEzk1tzFmz41l5stb6wsCa7I1shQLYjFgmM2kq9jS_aGKwTt3cQDr4AJ_HJ2LaO38vkzRe3N_3vef15nLyCOBT1i0YKo4LDZG84FdN87lXlUhMW5Dim274S8k/s1600/IMG_1126.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9iXc2IniK1fb-DnguMZAEzk1tzFmz41l5stb6wsCa7I1shQLYjFgmM2kq9jS_aGKwTt3cQDr4AJ_HJ2LaO38vkzRe3N_3vef15nLyCOBT1i0YKo4LDZG84FdN87lXlUhMW5Dim274S8k/s400/IMG_1126.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, Dan, you've finally made it. There is a better picture of Dan (also a better picture of the horse-racing), but I figured one that included both of them was the best option. Plus, it's a classic look. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjamrKRgpZohWmaQjgETPK22oFevudasCqstVwzIdqm65exx8QxND2KlE4CXg4dthktC2pcSUkkI5kmp3XV3K4cien3YQnBtAHnpkvWkAJfv-knxQ78IVB5bCmNm1hz7WSjeG-73HygWHM/s1600/IMG_1123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjamrKRgpZohWmaQjgETPK22oFevudasCqstVwzIdqm65exx8QxND2KlE4CXg4dthktC2pcSUkkI5kmp3XV3K4cien3YQnBtAHnpkvWkAJfv-knxQ78IVB5bCmNm1hz7WSjeG-73HygWHM/s400/IMG_1123.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just a fun thing we saw: a small child sitting atop a rusted truck.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJy2-x0SoOUfQkNTQ_HG98qoVmDVcLky3uLO-MAhjSyLQqZk1y-XVaCrhcSQTpUalwZzRqTMvgsS6Mf58cz-e94jcbaicsRM6_K5HI1gT3N8DrH4SnQiUvHCHnRem-DXAGYqwwyw-4do/s1600/IMG_1119.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJy2-x0SoOUfQkNTQ_HG98qoVmDVcLky3uLO-MAhjSyLQqZk1y-XVaCrhcSQTpUalwZzRqTMvgsS6Mf58cz-e94jcbaicsRM6_K5HI1gT3N8DrH4SnQiUvHCHnRem-DXAGYqwwyw-4do/s400/IMG_1119.JPG" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">More classic-fair: small children showing prize animals. This boy couldn't have been more than 6, and looked about 6. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbOXl4tjgzVykwbKtAYF5IHZFqHzikYxzhfu_ciJNM6kyMONdtCOuUTk15KYky9TLcmnQ8P94g6FQXZjG4cMiTDIIdL8AX4RzXBfv-ZK3jaoGEqeTkbAbOo9sUpf8sDgtPss3kd5_86s/s1600/IMG_1116.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbOXl4tjgzVykwbKtAYF5IHZFqHzikYxzhfu_ciJNM6kyMONdtCOuUTk15KYky9TLcmnQ8P94g6FQXZjG4cMiTDIIdL8AX4RzXBfv-ZK3jaoGEqeTkbAbOo9sUpf8sDgtPss3kd5_86s/s400/IMG_1116.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Prize-winning canned things. I probably don't want to know all the kinds of things they're preserving in those Mason jars.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQLxE14CLUR4eyjyeOBNqx2GQAnOitCIdisE7KUoSVP7D8GhprPsR4rcJsgfabos8zix1JhmcJM1lhwxF22xDHtwVopm7Df6-dcBRTyVaBxKdgXLr4WHGlyFLZ6HrHb-s6G5uIrbkkz8/s1600/IMG_1149.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQLxE14CLUR4eyjyeOBNqx2GQAnOitCIdisE7KUoSVP7D8GhprPsR4rcJsgfabos8zix1JhmcJM1lhwxF22xDHtwVopm7Df6-dcBRTyVaBxKdgXLr4WHGlyFLZ6HrHb-s6G5uIrbkkz8/s400/IMG_1149.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dan and I took a walk around the fairgrounds, and we're pretty confident that we saw all 600 cabins (we didn't venture into the land of the 1200+ RV campers that set up for the week). Among the best things we saw was this little boy trying to sell rocks. I'm not sure why his parents didn't tell him that selling rocks was not going to be a successful business venture, but Dan played along well and bought two for the shockingly-low price of $.25. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGP8wfe6rw1cj_KmGbvQsg5tx_xtl0h7Jzz72Un1o3l4seKPXJUHVsCSHDNcJ37nBdfR0FSGsteUrafmiONZhoDE99OX3DPYpLjgOEVKJfq5m8T3aOu6vl2pdb73mnPgYCHuKYb5gcNPQ/s1600/IMG_1156.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGP8wfe6rw1cj_KmGbvQsg5tx_xtl0h7Jzz72Un1o3l4seKPXJUHVsCSHDNcJ37nBdfR0FSGsteUrafmiONZhoDE99OX3DPYpLjgOEVKJfq5m8T3aOu6vl2pdb73mnPgYCHuKYb5gcNPQ/s400/IMG_1156.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'll spare you pictures of all the Confederate flags hung up on a number of cabins, but here's the official Neshoba County Fair flag. "Mississippi's Giant Houseparty".</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKePuFYLEM-KCKgfHHxibpgkXjOd_AfqY0ishPU6Wa3Uagl7T50pFZhJQ5a1jH1-Pa5B5xlTEWDlkjM_U8vJdzzzNWjWSUMmIVnjcaQUkNSfH0UpByoiKdB0dCOysUDg9Xe4vQM-AQ62g/s1600/IMG_1173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKePuFYLEM-KCKgfHHxibpgkXjOd_AfqY0ishPU6Wa3Uagl7T50pFZhJQ5a1jH1-Pa5B5xlTEWDlkjM_U8vJdzzzNWjWSUMmIVnjcaQUkNSfH0UpByoiKdB0dCOysUDg9Xe4vQM-AQ62g/s400/IMG_1173.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">And, of course, the horse-racing. (Chariot-racing?). After the horse-racing, there's something called a "chair race". That means that everyone grabs their folding lawn chairs and races around the track with them to get the best seats for the concert that follows the race. Running with chairs seems only slightly less dangerous than running with scissors or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmViPSWwbPY">standing on wiggly chairs</a>. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com0Philadelphia, MS 39350, USA32.7715227 -89.116727532.7184062 -89.1956915 32.8246392 -89.0377635tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336341943116201225.post-75579921707651163302012-07-23T23:36:00.000-05:002012-12-16T13:15:31.773-06:00Touring the (Jewish) Mississippi DeltaToday was a field-trip day--one that included zero visits to libraries, zero microfilm machines, and zero century-old city directories. We drove up to the Mississippi Delta, to Oxford (home of Ole Miss, and William Faulkner), Clarksdale (home of the blues), and Greenwood (where most of <i>The Help</i> was filmed, since Jackson "didn't look Southern enough").<br />
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Oxford, in addition to being the home of both Ole Miss and William Faulkner, is conveniently also the home of one of the other summer interns, so she was able to navigate for us. Our first stop was <a href="http://www.squarebooks.com/">Square Books</a>, and independent bookstore in town. I was finally able to find a Mississippi postcard (Jackson doesn't have them) to send to DD at camp, completing my trilogy of LA-OK-MS postcards sent to her. We also made stops at the <a href="http://southernstudies.olemiss.edu/">Center for the Study of Southern Culture</a> where we met with Jimmy Thomas and had quite an interesting conversation about definitions of the South (Confederacy? Where kudzu grows? Where they say ya'll? Slave states? Segregation? etc.). Then we headed over to meet the folks at the <a href="http://www.winterinstitute.org/">William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation</a> and heard about their youth summer program, which sounds like a really great way to spread race education. We ate lunch at <a href="http://citygroceryonline.com/restaurant.php?bbb">Big Bad Breakfast</a>, where I had an opportunity to say Shehecheyanu (a prayer you say the first time you eat/wear/do something new): I had grits for the first time!<br />
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And then we continued on to Clarksdale, MS<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqUhfV8HXtolgnfQ15Lx9tawWeiCc89u1Ho5tQ7FQ7O33XmPZvLE-vL-KxVeHptGGv7bXeiSjID44B3iA4NWZ9OTDXswsgmxWLy9soUHvMD3Jm7GDRktS53jq5yfrD2OgnCfxvaf1giSg/s1600/DSC_0005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqUhfV8HXtolgnfQ15Lx9tawWeiCc89u1Ho5tQ7FQ7O33XmPZvLE-vL-KxVeHptGGv7bXeiSjID44B3iA4NWZ9OTDXswsgmxWLy9soUHvMD3Jm7GDRktS53jq5yfrD2OgnCfxvaf1giSg/s400/DSC_0005.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is the old building of <a href="http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/ms/clarksdale.htm">Temple Beth Israel</a>. It's no longer functioning as a synagogue--we think it might house a church, though there were no signs on the property at all. It was also surprising that none of the decorative architecture had Jewish stars or other Jewish symbols.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibdzpYhShaH8yGd0YXIIhW0ZzEegVc8WxaUwhJvlPXdgXY0Ne0jctrGNFJ6Vxlx0xSVyHDH6B78u9Mi5H4YU5-7m817t-erHBfgDAhzfEiL7sQBmQfaj7tX5dAoogbQSGqlSCqq8BfjXw/s1600/DSC_0007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibdzpYhShaH8yGd0YXIIhW0ZzEegVc8WxaUwhJvlPXdgXY0Ne0jctrGNFJ6Vxlx0xSVyHDH6B78u9Mi5H4YU5-7m817t-erHBfgDAhzfEiL7sQBmQfaj7tX5dAoogbQSGqlSCqq8BfjXw/s400/DSC_0007.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Despite the closing of the Temple, the community (and its descendants) have made a point of making sure that the Jewish cemetery stays in good shape. Compared to some of the other Jewish cemeteries I've seen this summer, it's pretty big, and it's in beautiful condition. Many of the graves even had stones on them. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYtsXj6Fj-I6nLmCqydm7wkfgTxQQMmuIkzZj_gVcN5Vl1s9thJemEm5JxImFszzSy6gsaYqGXUvGkOkyu1-GW_2-Us9LOwsmXEJlxEB8B9HWs41o-rYW3OFpdQQCYgD2XqgysYlMvkMc/s1600/DSC_0022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYtsXj6Fj-I6nLmCqydm7wkfgTxQQMmuIkzZj_gVcN5Vl1s9thJemEm5JxImFszzSy6gsaYqGXUvGkOkyu1-GW_2-Us9LOwsmXEJlxEB8B9HWs41o-rYW3OFpdQQCYgD2XqgysYlMvkMc/s400/DSC_0022.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Of course, ice cream. No summer field trip is complete without ice cream. We had heard about Hugh Balthrop (Chicago native!) and his <a href="http://www.deltabusinessjournal.com/index.php/component/content/article/1-top-stories/178-how-sweet-it-is.html">backyard Sweet Magnolia</a> ice cream, and decided we had to try some. Unfortunately, the one place in Clarksdale that serves it was going to close before our arrival--so with a little pre-arranging, we got him to leave us some cups of delicious, homemade gelato at the Chamber of Commerce building in Clarksdale, where we would pick it up. Favorites; coffee, mint chocolate chip, and coconut (!)--though he's working on perfecting a fig ice cream!</span></td></tr>
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And on to Greenwood, MS:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Xat5lzv7kvPGXQIkMbapS2J40xCWLTl2uKf-uVydG0Ky4XOg_ScjxDOe-Phyphenhyphenva61PEnk_mYM8JC-mM7YHPRoh6EoiWbyPFLz_M348SX2eIjM7T-uqVMEZIX7sZk0uJmW3iIts6COF5Y/s1600/DSC_0029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Xat5lzv7kvPGXQIkMbapS2J40xCWLTl2uKf-uVydG0Ky4XOg_ScjxDOe-Phyphenhyphenva61PEnk_mYM8JC-mM7YHPRoh6EoiWbyPFLz_M348SX2eIjM7T-uqVMEZIX7sZk0uJmW3iIts6COF5Y/s400/DSC_0029.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is the exterior of <a href="http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/ms/greenwood.htm">Congregation Ahavath Rayim</a>, a formerly-Orthodox but now sort-of-Traditional-but-really-probably-Conservative, still operating synagogue in Greenwood. At the synagogue we met Gail Goldberg, who grew up in the synagogue, and she told us about its history and its current status.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPt3_f2BH-d4UOTIl9pwSLgycFEdWH7bkqi1tNsTqrRw5LNN2ipKfCos01mNMuuwrcnPGo8uLaOrK5PD0h-YUo-m1r_HQYl8VTVG473yWM3pbaB1f9JPKiYQHMUBODj7iGQwyIbnx2Tg/s1600/DSC_0035.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPt3_f2BH-d4UOTIl9pwSLgycFEdWH7bkqi1tNsTqrRw5LNN2ipKfCos01mNMuuwrcnPGo8uLaOrK5PD0h-YUo-m1r_HQYl8VTVG473yWM3pbaB1f9JPKiYQHMUBODj7iGQwyIbnx2Tg/s400/DSC_0035.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">The wall of the synagogue that housed the Ark, which holds the Torah, had gotten some pretty bad water damage, so the synagogue is doing some repair-work so the Torahs (and the building) don't get destroyed. </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifV5yr6XBbd2lBhysEdU9m8U1TLpygdG0M2VcsZcrcmGAl7y6_ILjxc3T6bL0lweYmdCQat9-G215xE3ul6_tsM0DyMGaMLnIgtKU-jnv_amZhsqxUZVZ6_01xjrHp3yZZcYPSKk7Vr9c/s1600/DSC_0051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifV5yr6XBbd2lBhysEdU9m8U1TLpygdG0M2VcsZcrcmGAl7y6_ILjxc3T6bL0lweYmdCQat9-G215xE3ul6_tsM0DyMGaMLnIgtKU-jnv_amZhsqxUZVZ6_01xjrHp3yZZcYPSKk7Vr9c/s400/DSC_0051.JPG" width="262" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCYCO9FcnxJ1RNXjohH52-oYTgPHfzE5pfLDhfSqlKkW7cjhCSqgHWUK5p1FgqWVPWR9D6NoKsk4ZDcQ25vDjk4s285YhSQa1fG7ZBOIq9itFIqe9aWDOvHcYJQVO86ywTIjTZUHpQObA/s1600/DSC_0064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCYCO9FcnxJ1RNXjohH52-oYTgPHfzE5pfLDhfSqlKkW7cjhCSqgHWUK5p1FgqWVPWR9D6NoKsk4ZDcQ25vDjk4s285YhSQa1fG7ZBOIq9itFIqe9aWDOvHcYJQVO86ywTIjTZUHpQObA/s400/DSC_0064.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ru4zHFZvhaVc3dyUlJ_f3UfFC9uiiQgT5NK3S-HkVRORfE3wwMPgSEgGqM-bzFyIwkda9fMSx8E1mfmmHN435p1g_FoSk01mTpuf4c9yFvaI4TYMLNgwHKlCwJDyF2jB2JDnLHzq4HA/s1600/DSC_0045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ru4zHFZvhaVc3dyUlJ_f3UfFC9uiiQgT5NK3S-HkVRORfE3wwMPgSEgGqM-bzFyIwkda9fMSx8E1mfmmHN435p1g_FoSk01mTpuf4c9yFvaI4TYMLNgwHKlCwJDyF2jB2JDnLHzq4HA/s400/DSC_0045.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">But the stained-glass is still intact and as beautiful as ever. There are currently about 10 Jews living in Greenwood, and they hold services once a month and get a minyan each time. On Rosh Hashanah, they run out of the 25 Machzors they own and the 25 that a family from Memphis brings down. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMXd0b2lLkffM568GigejINdkeZ0jJWu2OFp0t_FV3vw4GlzEp6LRO9AIfxszocs12Q74dWL0a4vFs-BmDmrJv8ViV1kNaP-1vu14Cs7caob5v4mcT9mrq1PpDfOJX_bYk6utN3D8tbwA/s1600/DSC_0101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMXd0b2lLkffM568GigejINdkeZ0jJWu2OFp0t_FV3vw4GlzEp6LRO9AIfxszocs12Q74dWL0a4vFs-BmDmrJv8ViV1kNaP-1vu14Cs7caob5v4mcT9mrq1PpDfOJX_bYk6utN3D8tbwA/s400/DSC_0101.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> After a tour of Greenwood, in which we saw the two Jewish stores that are still in operation (one is Goldberg's, a shoe store run by Gail and her husband Mike, and this year marks the store's 90th anniversary) as well as many of the houses used in the movie </span><i style="font-size: medium; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The Help</i><span style="font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">, we had a lovely dinner at </span><a href="http://www.deltabistro.com/" style="font-size: medium; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Delta Bistro</a><span style="font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> before heading back to Jackson. </span></td></tr>
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Abby Klionskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149620951936440407noreply@blogger.com5Greenwood, MS, USA33.5162315 -90.179528133.463563500000006 -90.2584921 33.5688995 -90.1005641