Eastern Europe Review

Well as you all know I spent the last 10 days visiting Eastern and Central Europe and well what would it be if I didn’t make three general comments about the similarities I saw among the four countries I visited. Just to remind you I went to…

1. Krakow, Poland
2. Prague, Czech Republic
3. Bratislava, Slovakia
4. Budapest, Hungary

All in all these countries were amazing and this was the best trip by far that I have taken while being here. But I noticed a number of ‘issues’ or maybe ‘concerns’ that the Eastern and Central counties had.

1. All 4 counties had a fear of loosing their identity by joining the EU. Polish were afraid they would become European instead of Poles. Czechs thought they would be engulfed by the EU with no say to their countries actions and power.
2. The second was the fact that this region has had ever changing boarders for quite some time. Switching occupation between Germany and Russia and having so many arguments in regards to borders these countries want to hold on to what sovereignty they have right now and may are afraid they will lose it by joining the EU.
3. There is an intense inferiority complex among the states. Poland thinks it’s better than Czech, Czech thinks it’s better than Slovakia, Slovakia thinks its better Hungary, and Hungary thinks they’re all better than it. But they consistently struggle to be the ‘best’ eastern European state.

Buda + Pest= BUDAPEST

Fun facts about Budapest:

1. The residents of the city are called Budapesters or Budapestians
2. The largest Synagogue in Europe, the Great Synagogue is located in Budapest.
3. The largest medicinal bath in Europe, Széchenyi Medicinal Bath is also located in the city.
4. the third largest Parliament building in the world is in Budapest
5. It even houses the third largest church in Europe, Esztergom Basilica.
6. The first underground railway in Europe was built in Budapest, which is known as the Millennium Underground railway. (The metro-cars look like they are still the original cars- rather scary!)
7. Budapest is designated as one of the top 100 most livable cities in the world.

While roaming the streets of Budapest I learned a number of interesting facts, the best part of the trip was learning about the history of Budapest. The first thing I noticed is that the city of Budapest is so decentralized, with major landmarks really far apart, and the lack of a true city center. Then I learned this is the reason… Budapest is basically merger of two cities, Buda and Pest, which have always been and still are considered two separate cities that are separated by the river Danube. The right or the west bank is occupied by Buda while the left or the east bank is flanked by Pest.

The next interesting thing I learned about Budapest is that it is the place where the concept of an Avenue came from. The definition of Avenue is: A way or opening for entrance into a place; a passage by which a place may by reached; a way of approach or of exit. In the center of Buda and Pest runs the Danube River. Then the city was created as a circle with the Danube River running straight through it. Then the King created straight ways or openings from the river to the outskirts of the city creating Avenues…

Lastly our last night there we were able to take a city tour and a night boat cruise of the Danube River. While the Danube river is gorgeous the day and acts as the front yard of some of Budapest major landmarks it is an extremely important river for Budapest and Hungary. Acting as a major source of transportation of goods and provides rich soil for Hungary’s farmers. But besides that the river cruise was absolutely gorgeous!

Kraców or Krakow or Cracow

Our first stop was Poland and boy was it interesting. Well I guess the first thing worth mentioning is how scared of the Russians they still are. While there I heard the word Russia(n) closely followed by some sort of curse word almost every hour on the hour. It was shocking how big a role Russia

still plays in Polish politics. One speaker even told us this exact quote “A dead Russian is a good Russian”…. So needless to say that was an interesting aspect!

1. There is an old wives tale about a dragon of Krakow and how the town came to be… (click here to read story)
2. Baltic Amber is extremely important in Poland… Back in the early 1900s there were large portions of Amber found along the shores of the Baltic Sea. About 90% of the world's extractable amber is still located in the Baltic Sea. Pieces of amber are torn from the seafloor are cast up by the waves, and collected at ebb-tide.
3. Pierogi: boiled dumplings of unleavened dough stuffed with varying ingredients. Pierogi were traditionally peasant food, but eventually spread in popularity throughout all social classes, including nobles. At the 2007 Pierogi Festival in Kraków, 30,000 pierogi were consumed daily. Polish pierogi are often filled with fresh white cheese, potatoes, and fried onions.
4. One very interesting aspect of our trip was our first speaker who spoke to us about Poland’s wishes from the US and the fact that they supported McCain as did the rest of Eastern Europe. The first mention was that Poland’s main diplomatic concern is the removal of visas from the United States. They said every Polish citizen needs a visa to go to the states, and furthermore it’s a long and drawn out process that takes much time. Poland expressed its wishes to remove this since they considered the US one of their greatest allies.

All in all Kraców was my favorite city we visited!

Auschwitz

The hardest and by far most touch part of my trip was our day visit to Auschwitz. Seeing the museum and going through the camp was extremely hard and terrifying. It was particular interesting to be in a group with German chaperons and they were not greeted with the best feelings. Furthermore there was a large number of Israelis at the camp that were carrying the Israeli flag and chanting songs in memorium of those who died. Here is some info on Auschwitz, since I didn’t know that much about it before going there…

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of Nazi extermination camps. One major difference pointed out was the difference between concentration and extermination camps. Extermination camps were meant to kill people and that is what Auschwitz was. The camp commandant, Rudolf HoB, testified that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz.

COMPONENTS: There were three main camps at Auschwitz, Auschwitz I, II, and III.
1. Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp, served as the administrative center for the whole complex, and was the site of the deaths of roughly 70,000 people, mostly Polish and Siveit POWs.
2. Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was an extermination camp or Vernichtungslager, and was the site of the deaths of at least 960,000 Jews, 75,000 Poles, and some 19,000 Gypsies ..
3. Auschwitz III (Monowitz) served as a labor camp for the Buna-Werke factory.

MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS: Nazi doctors at Auschwitz performed a wide variety of "experiments" on helpless prisoners. SS doctors tested the efficacy of X-rays as a sterilization device by administering large doses to female prisoners. Prof. Dr. Carl Clauberg injected chemicals into women's uteruses in an effort to glue them shut. Bayer, then a subsidiary of IG Farben, bought prisoners to use as guinea pigs for testing new drugs. The most infamous doctor at Auschwitz was Josef Mengele, who was also known as the “Angel of Death”. Particularly interested in "research" on identical twins, Mengele performed cruel experiments on them, such as inducing diseases in one twin of a pair and killing the other when the first died to perform comparative autopsies. He also took a special interest in dwarves, injecting twins, dwarves and other prisoners with gangrene to "study" the effects.

ESCAPES: About 700 prisoners attempted to escape from the Auschwitz camps during the years of their operation, of which about 300 were successful. A common punishment for escape attempts was death by starvation; the families of successful escapees were sometimes arrested and interned in Auschwitz and prominently displayed to deter others. If someone did manage to escape, the SS would pick ten random people from the prisoner's block and starve them to death.

Rent an American

So the first week I got here I got the chance to sign up for a program called Rent An American…of course it sounds kinda crazy so I signed up!

Basically Rent An American is a program based in Freiburg Germany that allows for schools with in the Baden Württemberg region to ‘rent’ and American for the classroom. So a teacher will pick a subject such as politics, US sports, traveling, etc. The kids here in Germany not only learn English but learn the American/English culture and as a result have ‘speakers or experts (me)’ come in and talk to them.

I will have my first experience on April 24^th and will be talking to three different class rooms. The first is 8-9 year olds and I will be discussing US States and traveling with them. Then the second session is with 12-13 year old and we will discuss traveling and US daily life, then lastly the last session is 15-19 year olds discussing world traveling. Each session is about 1 hour long and is about a 15 minute ‘lecture’ then 45 minutes Q and A!

Should be fun!

Wish me luck!!

Strasbourg!

Today we went to Strasbourg, France which is in the Alsace region of France. The Alsace Region of France has been in and out of French/German/French/ German occupation. But now and since WWII it has been in French control. We went there to tour the European Union Parliament (there is also one in Brussels- they switch off after a couple of months). We were able to see about 15 minutes of chamber debate… each parliament member speaks in their language and it’s all translated to the 24 EU language and broadcast on headphones that the audience listens to.

But to be honest the best part of our trip was the city tour of Strasbourg. My favorite part was the Notre Dome Cathedral de Strasbourg, which was built after the famous in Paris but took 250 years to build for one amazing reason. Since the Alsace region was constantly changing control from country to country they barely ever got any money from whatever country was controlling it at the time. So the Cathedral was paid for by the residents of Strasbourg! So they had to build and take breaks to raise money.

Another fun fact about the Cathedral is the stain glass window behind the alter… depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus… About the Virgins head there is what some considered a halo but it is actually the European Union flag with the twelve gold stars, since the window was given to the Cathedral as a gift from the EU. (if you click the picuture to enlarge it- you see at the very top 12 gold stars in a circle)

Later we learned that the notion of a stork brings a child to mothers and fathers came from this region. The tradition goes that you put two sugar cubes outside your window and the stork with come and eat them and bring that household a child. It is also said that if you see a stork in the city you should rush home and put sugar our for a that’s a sign that you’re about to get a child from the stork!

Lastly we had an all you can eat Flamkugen meal. Flamkugen is a Southern German and Alsace tradition. It is like a pizza, with very thin dough and sour cream spread on top of it, and then bacon and onions and cheese are spread on top. There are a variety of types but this is the most common and is famous in this region. Lets just say the restaurant was shocked at how much a group of 70 Americans can eat… they almost had to cut us off… lets just say all you can eat in Europe isn’t anything like all you can eat in America!!

HAPPY 21 in Amsterdam

For my birthday weekend I went to Amsterdam with 7 friends of mine. While many people think I went to go crazy in a country where it’s legal too go crazy I actually didn’t… I promise mom and dad :).

But we got there Saturday morning at 7 am and went straight for a city walking tour that we’ve taken in almost every other city, a New Europe tour. We learned a number of awesome traditions and fun facts about Amsterdam!

For instance, it is legal to smoke pot in ‘cafes’ in Amsterdam, however under NO circumstances is it legal to smoke tobacco. So if a police man was to enter a café he could arrest you for smoking a cigarette but not pot!

Another cool fact we learned is that the current mayor of Amsterdam is really working hard to clean up the image of Amsterdam. In fact he has officially outlawed all drugs besides pot and reduced the size of the ‘red light’ district in half.

We also learned a great deal about how the red light district worked. For instance each prostitute has to rent her window from hour to hour, costing about 100 euro per an hour and they work in 6-8 hour shifts costing them 600- 800 euro for each working day. However to ‘rent’ a prostitute it costs about 60-80 euro for ½ hour. But for each ‘special’ request it costs another 60-80 euro, then for each 15 minutes after a half hour the price doubles, triples, etc. So for ½ is 80 euro but for 45 is 160 euro and one hour is 240 euro.

And no I don’t know this from experience I know by asking questions... and no I didn’t ask a prostitute I asked my tour guide!

But moving on the night of my birthday we went to a Comedy club. It was set up in a Whose Line Is It Anyway setting, and was performed by 4 Americans and all done in English! Then of course we went out!

One finally fun fact from Amsterdam is the language they speak is Dutch… which is oddly similar to German. For instance every word I learned in German was the same in Dutch! So parents you’re really paying for me to learn 2 languages!!