So – two hours to kill in an airport without internet… A seemingly excellent opportunity to write. Where did we let off? Oh yeah, we were in Salzburg. Wendy and I left the beautiful mountains of Salzburg and caught a train to Vienna. Feeling tired and not so motivated, we trudged to the hostel and settled ourselves in, before heading out to a museum that used to be the summer palace of a former king of Savoie. It was very beautiful…. Though we weren’t feeling too inspired by the dark clouds looming overhead. We were able to admire works by Gustav Klimt, in particular ‘The Kiss’. It was all very beautiful and cultured. Here is a picture of Wendy being excited about the museum:
We fought against the icy winds on our way back to the hostel and then made some delicious risotto. The impolite Parisian girls that we met in the kitchen were totally jealous. The next couple of days in Vienna didn’t consist of too much. As I already said, we weren’t feeling too motivated – the weather being a large factor of this. I’m actually very glad that it hasn’t snowed. I think that 2-3 degrees with wind was really enough for Wendy and I to deal with. We enjoyed strolling around the city and looking at the beautiful buildings and lacy iron exteriors etc… Though the chill factor did lead to our huddling in several cafés.
I was honestly dreading the 5 hour train ride to Prague, but surprisingly it turned out to be really nice. Wendy and I had our own compartment thing… We killed 3 hours talking and then converted the place into a cinema (I had my laptop and we flicked the light off). Wendy was slightly nervous, as we were in Eastern Europe… but the Czech Republic isn’t really in Eastern Europe.
PRAGUE
I was pleasantly surprised by Prague. When we arrived at the hostel, we were upgraded to a private suite because the dorm had been overbooked. There we had a view of the castle AND our own space. It was fantastic and really a kind of relief not to be in a room with a snorer and an all-night partyer. We had fun exploring and walking over Charles Bridge into the very old part of the city… Even though it was dark and grey in Prague, we felt very into exploring and venturing into all that historic city wilderness.
The first day that we spent in Prague we took a free walking tour. We grumbled a little bit when we saw that it was an Australian leading this tour… But quickly bit our tongues when she said that she had lived there for 20 years (and we can all guess why). The tour was fantastic! Not only did we then have a good sense of our surroundings, we were equipped with 700 years of Czech history! It was pretty sweet. We really just enjoyed walking around Prague and enjoying everything that was going on around us.
We went to a Jewish synagogue where the names of 250,000 people were printed on the walls. These of course were those who fell victim to the Nazi regime in the Czech republic at the time. In the same place there was an exhibitions of childrens’ drawings. The drawings had been done by Jewish children from Prague who had been deported to a ghetto. An Austrian artist who had studied at the Bauhaus in Berlin had instructed these children to draw pictures of their hopes and dreams, but also record their feelings of deportation and life in the ghetto. The pictures were stored in suitcases in the attic of one of the buildings in the ghetto, and were discovered after the war. Had this not have happened, the names of many children who perished would have been lost. So that was very interesting and moving. We also made a point of going to a famous wall, known as 'The Lennon Wall'. Here people would write the lyrics to Beatles songs to gain a sense of hope and release during the times of communist oppression. It was really interesting to see this and we also made our own contributions to the wall.
During our stay in Prague, we stumbled across a lovely tea house where we spent quite a bit of time. We also treated ourselves to some local Czech sweets and paraded up and down the Christmas market that was on a road leading up to the museum. By the time we left Prague, we felt that we’d had the time that we needed. The weather was bringing us down again and it was time to move.
BERLIN
We caught the bus to Berlin on Tuesday night. The following day we did an alternative walking tour of Berlin, which included looking at lots of Street Art. It was cool, but very long. Eventually I felt a bit disappointed, as I really felt that most of it I could see in Melbourne. It was still cool to see parts of the city that otherwise we wouldn’t have explored. Everyone on our tour was Australian. What’s up with that? I swear that I heard more Australians in Prague and Berlin than I have since I left home six months ago. I found myself channelling my inner Australianness…. I was blurting out phrases like ‘I’m totally bummed about the lack of merch’. Wendy and I both had some fun with this. But really, why are there so many of us here? It’s so far away and Australia isn’t even that populated.
We visited Sachsenhausen, what used to be a concentration camp. It was very haunting and we were given a very detailed tour. Of course we left disturbed, cold and not so jolly in spirits… But felt that it was important thing to do. That night we went for doner kebabs. They fix all dark moods.
I flew back to Paris on Friday night (as is suggested by the beginning of this post) and then Chloé and Baptiste treated me to crêpes at Montparnasse. I then stayed the night at Chloé’s new studio apartment, which was cool. Back at home now, which is a big relief… We have a KITTEN! And I’m going to rescue the apartment from disarray this afternoon.
Hope you’re all doing well. Love,
Alice
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