Tuesday, January 29, 2013

January 25, 2013


They say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Well, when in Bratislava, Slovakia, I suggest just being thankful that you are only there for a day is enough. We met to go to the train station at 8:30. We were extremely happy that our meeting time was pushed back an hour, as it originally was supposed to be at 7:30. We aren’t morning people.

Even though our time was pushed back, we still sat in silence waiting at the station. We waited for twenty minutes in a waiting room, or what resembled a glass box to stay warm in the 19-degree weather with a ten-degree wind chill. IPods on, headphones in. Wait. Shiver. Wait.

The hour train ride to Slovakia was a bit of a daze. (I think the cold is starting to get to our heads!) I continued to listen to my iPod and watched the city turn into beautiful snow covered countryside. As we were riding along, I couldn’t help but think what it would be like to wake up and look at this every single morning. Right on cue, and typically enough, every song from the Sound of Music began running through my head. For the remainder of the ride, I think I forgot that I am Morgan; not Lisle von Trappe. But we can blame that on the cold, too.

Once we arrived in Bratislava, things got interesting. We needed to take the public trolley up a hill to our visit site of the day. After several passed us, it was very exciting to finally see ours come around the corner. We crammed in the last possible standing and breathable places on the trolley. But before we could breath a sign of relief that we were in a warm place, we suddenly realized that we were experiencing the next Olympic sport—Trolley Balancing. It is a combination of surfing and bull riding. The event starts by the trolley driver flooring the gas pedal and all contenders must remain balanced on two feet for the remainder of the jerky ride. Unfortunately, our class will not qualify for this event without a lot more practice. The locals tried not to laugh but couldn’t help as we flew back and forth across the aisle of the trolley.

Laughing as we piled off of the trolley, we breathless took in the beautiful castle that was standing before us. A very old castle that had been restored to a huge white castle that looks over the rest of the city. The view was amazing despite the haze from the snow. We made a video blog and took another group picture with our banner and headed back into town for lunch.

Spending multiple hours embracing all the heat that we can, we enjoyed Slovak cuisine. I got a traditional dish called goulash, which had pork, dumplings, and a sauce with a pop. It was so good; I forgot to take a picture before I started eating half of it. Oops! The restaurant was adorable with its mix-matched walls straight out of the 1970’s. It created a warm (figuratively and literally) atmosphere and once again, I just sat back and laughed at how many awkward conversations can come up at the table. Its to a point now on this trip where is it a game to see how they come up and how long they last. Not that they offend me, but you seriously have to sit back and wonder how many people surrounding us can understand the weirdest topics of conversation I have ever heard. Like I said, I just sit back and laugh.

Once we decided to brave the cold again, we wandered to the place of a former Jewish synagogue in Bratislava. We learned after the war, this damaged building was torn down and replaced with a highway. This foreshadowed what we would learn at the Jewish Museum—which was very little.

The Jewish population in the Slovak community at the beginning of the 1940’s held 25% of the entire population, which was completely wiped out by the end of the war. The Slovak’s knew they had to teach the history of Orthodox Jews in Slovakia but they didn’t know how. They had some artifacts from Jewish households that perished during the war but they never actually addressed the Holocaust. This was becoming a theme at exhibits we are beginning to look at. Many places try to addresses the horror, but honestly, it almost turns out worse than not addressing it at all.

The rest of the day was spent in and out of pastry shops and the mall to see the classy end of Bratislava. We decided it would be a better decision to head back to Vienna to get dinner instead of waiting around for dinner in Bratislava. In the midst of this decision, we realized that we only had fifteen minutes to get all the way back to the train station, if we didn’t want to wait around an hour for the next train to Vienna. Our (extreme) power walking turned into a full on sprint by the time we reached the station. We rushed past the rush hour crowd and found our train just in time. Unfortunately, in all the commotion, we suddenly realized that we lost one of our classmates. So off the train we went, to decide to get back on the train and we would just meet them in Vienna. At the very last second, Elliot is accounted for and we all burst into laughing tears as (once again) we get the “Oh, those are Americans” stares.

This is what we put up with everyday. We get a little too loud, act silly, get stared at, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I own the title of “those Americans” and I love our flawless dysfunctionality.

No comments:

Post a Comment