aFor our second class trip, professor Martin took us to Vienna, Austria and then Venice, Italy. I decided to split this trip into two posts, since I have alot to say about both of these cities and their attractions. Assuming you've read the title of this post, I bet you can guess which part you're currently about to start. The trip by bus from Olomouc to Vienna only lasted a couple of hours. Almost everyone took advantage of the travel time to catch a quick nap or do a little research about our destination. Most of this first day in the city was supposed to be led by our professors, so I settled in and chose the former. But upon arrival, we learned that most of the historical buildings and museums are closed on Tuesdays. This resulted in us being given free time to explore the city for the remainder of the day. After a look at destinations within walking distance of our location, a small group of us decided to check out a nearby “liquid zoo,” which we figured out was a fancy European way of saying aquarium. The aquarium was located inside an oddly shaped, and quite ugly, concrete tower. We had to navigate through some construction but managed to make it to the base of the tower and buy our tickets. Upon entering the tower, we realized it contained so much more than just exhibits about fish. Every floor had a different theme and there were about thirteen floors in total. The tower’s exhibits are similar to what you would find in the ocean and rainforest zones at the Henry Doorly Zoo, but everything is cleverly designed to be fit into the verticality of the tower. It was a very unique take on a zoo experience that was well worth the price of admission. Now you may be wondering why the Viennese built the aquarium in such an odd concrete structure instead of just having a normal zoo? At the top of the tower, we finally got some history on the structure and its purpose. Originally, this building was one of six World War II flak towers constructed in Vienna by the Nazis. It served as a way to elevate anti-aircraft guns above the buildings and as an air raid shelter for up to 40,000 civilians. After the war, the towers were too big to collapse without damaging the surrounding buildings, so they were repurposed as various public facilities. Every flak tower was built with a counterpart about a kilometer away, so when we reached the top of the tower we could see its pair (seen in the pictures below). Within the next few years, the exterior of our tower will finish a complete redesign. The end goal is to turn an ugly tower with a history of violence into something beautiful and full of life. A transition that I and many others will enjoy for years to come. Our second day in Vienna started with a trip to the now open imperial treasury. This treasury is filled to the brim with valuables collected by the Hapsburgs during their rule over the Holy Roman Empire. This monarchy showed they knew how to live in excess from their cradles to their graves. Everything object of any importance was crafted from the finest metals and studded with gems so large they look fake. I observed some items I expected such as crowns, robes, and scepters, but other items such as a narwhal horn that they thought was from unicorn proved to be more surprising. The item that I found the most interesting was a massive nail that is believed to have held Jesus’s right hand to the crucifix. The entire treasury was quite impressive, but there’s only so much you can do with gold and jewels before everything starts to look similar. After the treasury, we were given the option to explore another museum of our choosing. I decided to visit the natural history museum along with the majority of the other students. Vienna’s natural history museum has a wide variety of displays that focus on history, geology, and wildlife. Most of my time was spent exploring room after room of stuffed animals on display. The most impressive part of the museum was the sheer number of different critters they had to display. The bird section alone took up at least four massive rooms. I even found some antelopes to pose with as I “threw my lopes” to represent UNK. The last exhibit in the natural history museum I’m going to talk about is a bit different than the rest. It focuses on the evolution and destructive nature of war that caught my interest. The exhibit starts with recounting violent acts from as far back as history has been recorded. It talked about how blurry the lines can be between a war hero and a murder. It can all just depend on what era he or she lived in and who recorded their history. The main display in the exhibit is a re-creation of a mass grave from the Thirty Years’ War. It tells the story of 47 soldiers whose lives were lost in violence and names lost in history. The point is to show that war is not all about honor and glory for most. Many soldiers are lost in the fight and often forgotten about altogether. It also warns us that “war is still not history,” and we’re still unnecessarily losing lives in our world today.
1 Comment
Welcome back! This blog post is all about our first full group trip to Prague and Dresden. All the students checked into our hostel in Prague and started with a group tour around noon. This was lead by our professors, Jan and Martin, and was focused on learning important locations in the city in the hope that we wouldn’t get too lost. We did hit up one historical location and that was the St. Cyril church. This was the church where Czech soldiers were found hiding after assassinating the German official, Reinhard Heydrich. The Czechs held out against the Germans for around six hours. The window where the Germans ran hoses in the crypt, the hatch surrounded by bullet holes where the Germans tried to enter, and the hole where the Czechs had tried to tunnel out are all still there. I wanted to spend more time at the church and take pictures, but the tour was interrupted by a group of French soldiers that were holding a special memorial in the crypt. We started off the next day with another tour lead by our professors. This time the highlights of the day were the St. Charles Bridge and Prague Castle. The cathedral within the castle was by far my favorite part. It acts as a church, history museum, and cemetery all at once. Learning about the saints and seeing their tombs was both unnerving and super cool. The size of the building and its huge stained glass windows had me stopping to stare every couple of feet. It is by far the most history rich and awe-inspiring building I’ve ever been in. The next day was our day trip to Dresden, Germany. The entire town was devastated by American bombers during WW2. Walking through the rebuilt city was one of the strangest experiences of the trip thus far. Our walk from the bus station was filled with mostly modern buildings and was very reminiscent of a typical American street. However, the city abruptly switched to a more familiar European style after a couple minutes of walking. These buildings were designed to be similar to those before the bombings, so they have an older style, but little wear from time and the elements. Our first stop for the tour was Frauenkirche/The Church of our Lady. It was completely destroyed during the bombings, but was rebuilt with some of the materials from the old church. All the dark stone bricks placed throughout the exterior of the church walls are pieces recovered after the bombings. The church tour let’s you explore the main worship area and crypt below. The crypt is a sort of museum that focuses on the devastation of the bombings and how destructive war can be. A group of us also spent a couple euros to climb to the top of the church. The view alone totally was worth the cost of admission. I didn’t realize how big Dresden was until I saw the city stretch into the horizon. It put into context the sheer amount of city that was destroyed during the bombings. For the rest of the afternoon, we got to choose either an art or history museum. I chose the art museum, because I had never been to an art museum before and this trip is all about new experiences. There were three floors to explore that were all packed with painting and sculptures. Each floor represented a different period of time, and I enjoyed watching how art styles evolved over time. I preferred pieces that had a realistic style, but portrayed biblical or mythological scenes. There was even a room that had pieces of art that had been recovered after WW2 and the story behind their return to the museum. I found it easy to lose track of time staring at a specific piece or just wandering through a time period. It’s an experience I would recommend especially to those who are at least curious about historical art and artists. For our last day in Prague, we went as a group to the Jewish Museum. The tour started with all the guys being given a kippah to cover the tops of their heads before entering the museum. Wearing a kippah is still common practice among all Jewish males in the Prague community and all male visitors are encouraged to wear them out of respect to their traditions. The first building we entered was the Pinkas Synagogue. The first thing I noticed was that the walls of the synagogue were completely covered in names and numbers. Jan and Martin explained that each one of these names represented a member of the Czech Jewish community who was killed in the Shoah*, and the numbers beside the names are the birth and death date of each Jew. The sheer number of names packed onto each wall was overwhelming and emotionally moving. I later learned that these names only represented the 80,000 vitims from the from Czech Republic. While that's a considerable amout of people, it is only a drop in the bucket when compared to the millions that died in total in concentration camps. I don’t think I will ever be able to fully comprehend just how horrible this period of time was and how many innocent people suffered under Nazi control.
*Shoah is a Hebrew word that means “catastrophe.” Shoah is considered a more appropriated term for the mass murder of Jews under the Nazi regime during World War II. The other part of the tour that I found interesting was the Old Jewish Cemetery. This cemetery hasn’t been used for a burial in over one hundred years, so it is more of a gateway to the past and Jewish tradition. The cemetery was unlike any I had previously seen. The graves appeared to be arranged sporadically and very close to one another. The actually area of the cemetery is small by modern standards, but it seemed huge because of the large amount of tombstones. Professor Jan stopped periodically during our walk through the cemetery to answer questions and give general information about Jewish tradition. I learned that Jews are very particular about the place they are buried, therefore a Jewish cemetery will often fill up quickly. When they run out of room to bury people, they build the cemetery up and over the previous graves. That is why the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague is so crowded and elevated much higher than the street. Jan said that in some places the cemetery is up to ten layers tall. Both the Pinkas Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery were great experiences to learn about Jewish traditions. Learning more about their religion and people helped grow the sympathy I have towards those who suffered in World War II. It was one of those uncomfortable days that makes for the best Reality Czech. Hello everyone! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Seth Taylor, and I made the exciting decision to study abroad in the Czech Republic this semester. I am creating this blog as a way to communicate my experiences with those who know me and/or might be curious about what it’s like to study abroad. I’ll be starting this post with a brief description of my background and then I’ll finish with an explanation on why I chose to uproot from my normal life and study abroad in the Czech Republic. My story starts in a small town called Ainsworth, Nebraska. I grew up on a farm in the center of a county that prides itself on being knowns as “The Middle of Nowhere.” This environment shaped me to value family and individuality but often left me feeling disconnected from others. I grew to love school and extracurricular activities because they allowed me to meet people and learn new skills. These passions to learn and connect made attending college a natural choice for my future. In the spring of 2016, I committed to the University of Nebraska at Kearney and have loved being a Loper ever since. Attending UNK has helped me refine my identity and achieve the connections I always dreamt about in my earlier life. A number of you might be wondering why I chose Reality Czech as the name of my blog. First, I love puns and couldn't resist putting one in the title. Second, this semester abroad is serving as a reminder of what the world is really like outside of my comfort zone in Nebraska. Even the most outgoing college student can easily fall into a routine of ease and monotony, and I am no exception. Last year, I realized I was coasting through college with the intention of graduating as soon as possible. Life had become a checklist that I was following to a tee with no variety. So, I decided to break free of this routine and try something a little more chaotic. This semester abroad is my commitment to the idea that life is about more than the destination. It's about the people you meet and the lessons you learn along the way. The journey is where one will truly discover what it's like to be a human and part of this world. Or at least, these are my intentions going into the study abroad program. Time will tell if my newfound outlook on life is correct. In this blog, most of my posts will talk about the exotic places I'll travel, the friends I'll meet, and the new food I'll try. But keep in mind that behind every adventure is hours of travel planning, stressing about said travel plans, sprinting to public transportation, and getting lost in foreign environments. Studying abroad is great to explore and try new things, but it also comes with more hardship, confusion, and failure than you would come across in a typical day. There will be a lot of all these struggles in the following months, and I am attempting to view these obstacles as part of the journey and paths to self-growth.
For whoever made it this far, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my first post and learning about me and my purpose for studying abroad. Make sure to keep an eye out for new posts about my experiences and perceptions over the next couple months. Remember to live in the moment, and maybe consider taking your own Reality Czech. |
|