Remember the duck?

... well meet the cat, my newest friend who came meowing over to me on my walk back to the apartment (in the middle of a freak blizzard!). I was prepared to slip her into my coat so she didn't freeze her little kitty behind off, but she decided to run under a parked car instead. Oh and if you were wondering she was indeed a solid black cat, but I am not superstitious like that (I just refuse to touch any pennies that are tails up to the extent that if I drop them and they land that way they will stay in the floor until my roommate kindly picks them up for me).

Funny Mannequins

I just had to share with everyone the funny sight that greets me when I walk along Hussova street. Pretty big mannequins, huh? I don't think it's even a big and tall store, they're just massive, but I have yet to see any Czechs that come close to being this size.

Spring is Springing!

My loved ones back in the States are facing ice storms, wintry mix, dismal rain, and more snow so I thought I would share a happy image of spring that is popping up everywhere here (hopefully this fills you with hope of the spring to come, and not jealousy!)

Prisons can be pretty?

Spilberk was a pretty brutal prison, but it has to be the prettiest prison I've ever seen (since I have a clean criminal record however I have to admit that I haven't seen that many!)

Casemates

So I finally made it back to Spilberk when I was feeling a little better, and Tom also acted as a very informational tour guide! We walked through the art collection and the history section before having a leisurely lunch and then going down into the ... (scary foreboding music please) ... casemates.

So the casemates were used to hold political prisoners and criminals (and according to the ticket lady, "gangsters") and still stand as a symbol of the at times tyrannical rule of the Hapsburgs. The place overall was slightly spooky, but especially creepy were where they kept the "lifers." At one point in time, one of the Hapsburg empresses thought that the death sentence was cruel. So instead the set up little wooden cages (about the size of an office cubicle) where prisoners would be kept with no food, no water, and no light. None of these prisoners lived past a month (and this was considered the more humane choice!).

Cabbage Market (Zelny trh)

In the middle of the Cabbage Market (where I sometimes attempt to do grocery shopping) there is the Parnassus Fountain. The piece is huge and was built in the 1690's in Baroque style with a great deal of naturalism and trompe l'oeil (I knew taking Art History was good for something!)

Museum Day

So Tom and I spent Saturday looking at the museum in Brno, the Moravski Gallery, I should perhaps say museums however since the gallery is spread out over three different premises. We went first to the building on Hussova street where there was a wonderful collection on applied art and we got to look at different furniture, glasses, and clothes, along with some paintings. The other gallery is near Masaryk and we found once we went inside that there was a special Alfons Mucha exhibit for that weekend only. I love Mucha's work (in the post on St. Vitus's Cathedral in Prague I showed a picture of the window he created) and enjoyed the facsimiles of his posters and of Art Nouveau jewelry. The museum was also full of huge floral arrangements like the one shown below.

More Brno folklore

So I have already told you about the story of the stuffed alligator/dragon. While right by that hanging wee-beastie is this Gothic arch. You can see that the center turret is slanted. The story goes that it was done by the builder out of spite for not getting paid enough, so the turret points to the figure of Justice to signal the unfairness. When a new turret was put in place by a different builder, it was somehow bent overnight.

Does that make us smokers?

So for those of you who do not know, the American phenomenon of paranoia about the dangers of first and second-hand smoke (this is not to say it is not a legitimate paranoia!) does not extend over into Europe. Since all restaurants in Maine have been smoke free since I was a little girl, it was a bit of a shock to my system to be in restaurants here where everyone is smoking (including the bartender). Even though Tom and I do not smoke, he keeps joking that when we're back in the U.S. we might need to say we're smokers after all the smoke we've inhaled here.

Anyways, we went in search of a restaurant last night, and decided to try the little place by our grocery store first. We walk in and find a table and after the waitress brings us beer we find out it's just a bar, no food. Tom kept asking if I had my camera so I could take a picture but thankfully I did not have my camera there with me! Since we were completely surrounded by very burly locals (there was actually a great deal of mullets as well) and five minutes in there seemed to be equal to one year of a pack a day habit we quickly drank our beers and left in search of food (and hopefully not just more bars since I didn't think I could handle a full out pub crawl).

After taking the tram down the hill we found one place where there wasn't an open table (at least five of them had pink slips on them saying they were reserved, so the place was half empty but had no seating) before we found what has to be our new favorite restaurant. We sat and ordered beer (Gambrinus, which I like more than Pilsner Urquell) and asked if there was food. The waitress brought menus but apologized there were none in English (we had strayed off the tourist path) which was fine by us because we like guessing. A man soon came to the table to take our orders, explaining that he speaks a little English and can help. I ordered biftek (steak) and was perfectly happy not to have him explain it to me since I wanted to see how it came out (which was with a little fried egg on top). Tom asked what the favorite dish was there and ended up getting a delicious goulash with little savory potato cakes. For dessert the waitress said the two options in Czech and we just picked the first one. It ended up being delicious crepes with ice cream and chocolate sauce. So the guessing game worked out perfectly and we had one of the most enjoyable meals so far!

More good feet finds

So I just thought this was pretty, especially in the sunlight, again, good job feet for taking me on a walk!

"Okay feet, you do the thinking!"

So I took the tram back to Namesti Miru today and was feeling in a bit of a funk, not for any real reason, just one of those days. I was going to head back to the apartment for my normal tea and chocolate routine (with the new Rooiboos tea I was excited to try) but getting off the tram, my feet decided that I was not going home yet. My feet decided to send me in the direction of the park by the apartment and then they walked me to a bench and told me to sit down. Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine, soaking in that wonderful vitamin D, and it was impossible to stay grumpy when I looked up and saw all the dogs chasing each other, the families playing Frisbee, or the little kids climbing trees. Since my feet had done so well, I figured I'd let them be in charge for the rest of the afternoon (they thought it was about time I trusted them) and they took me on quite a nice little walk around the neighborhood (where I ran into the cute fellow below) and another park before bringing me back to the apartment. Good job feet!
This old guy was just relaxing in the sun, isn't he a cutie. He reminds me of Camper, what do you think Rick?

We are officially regulars!

So Tom and I walked into our favorite lunch spot today (really our only lunch spot since we're there every day) and we didn't have to order! The lady pointed at me and said "falafel and coke" and Tom was a "gyros and coke." We even knew the exact amount. It was a pretty special moment for us.

Also exciting was Tom and I "co-teaching" his class last night (he invited me to guest lecture and talk about my experiences with college and community in the United States). It turns out that there was a paper due that day, which may be why only two of the eighteen students showed up, but it ended up being a really interesting discussion. We compared the differences in University between the Czech Republic and United States. Here, you would know coming out of high school which program you want to go into, since you apply for a specific "faculty" (like a major in the U.S.) and then you only really take classes within that discipline. The two women were shocked to find out that in the States you would only usually take four classes a semester since here they take sixteen! However, since I am about to graduate with around $20,000 in student loans, I was pretty jealous that here you can go to school for free from the age of 18 to 26 (don't even get me started on their far superior maternity leave!!) Tom also asked some questions about communism which was interesting since one woman was six during the revolution and the other was 3.

And, in case you were wondering, the picture is from my walk into town today.

Meet the newest addition

So this little guy caught my attention yesterday on my walk into town. On my way back through I just had to get him, he's now sitting happily on the desk. What a cutie! (Tom is planning on bringing it back to the States although I tried to point out it might be difficult to get it past customs, but his response was "they'll have to tear it out of my cold dead hands")

Some things are difficult enough in English...

Sometimes I'm a little intimidated when people come to the door and deliver stuff, or I don't always understand initially what they need me to do, kind of like we're speaking two different languages. Well today, that was exactly what it was like.

We have been waiting for the check for the rent so we can in turn pay our landlady. Tom keeps checking up on it and they finally told him they mailed it yesterday so it should arrive today. The mail came this morning and there was no check! So when Tom left for work he asked me to keep my eye out for it. Around eleven our doorbell rang and thinking it must be someone delivering the check I scramble to unlock the door and run downstairs. When I get down there a young man shows me what I am sure is a very official badge and starts to ask me questions in Czech. I tell him I don't understand and that I don't speak Czech. He looks crestfallen. Still thinking he is here to give me the check I wait for him to just hand it to me. Instead he says "Voda" and shows me a little form. I slowly realize he is a serviceman here to check something in the apartment having to do with water. So, after I knock on Ludmilla's door and she doesn't answer (she is the landlady, and she conveniently speaks Czech) this young man and I start to play charades. I feel that I should mention he is somewhat intimidating in appearance as he has multiple piercings and appears to have recently been in a bar fight since he has a black eye and a huge bandage on the side of his face. However, he was almost adorable when he developed a little pout and pointed at me and said in Czech "you don't speak Czech and I don't speak English." He then put his hands on his hips and a puzzled expression on his face and looked up to the heavens for inspiration. Suddenly he grabs a piece of paper that has many official looking diagrams on it and lets me know he needs to check the water and he has to go inside. In the hall he then points down, to say he needs to go to the basement. I point to the landlady's apartment and say she is not there and I do not know where the basement is. He pouts. Then again he flourishes that same piece of paper and starts underlining parts of it and writes down a date and then a number and makes a gesture with his hand saying I should call it. He then leaves and I tuck the important paper in Ludmilla's door, hoping I have not done something horribly, horribly wrong.

This fun language challenge was actually my second for the day. I'm going to Bratislava in Slovakia tomorrow for a little day trip (I love how a trip to another country can be a day trip here!) and I needed to look up the times of the trains. I was going to go into the train station later to buy the actual ticket but the tellers there don't often speak English so it's helpful to have the date and time and destination written down for the train you want. However, looking up Czech train information when it is all in Czech added an extra challenge. Luckily for me I found a great translating site to help. Still though it was a bit of a painful process to look up each word and since one Czech word often has multiple meanings, to figure out what they meant together in a sentence. In the end though I did get my train tickets, and I also figured out what the gentleman this morning wanted and I found that two things that I sometimes find challenging in English, I was able to navigate in a foreign country... it just took charades, a dictionary, and a little more time!

A view worth the hike

So since I arrived in Brno with Tom I have been walking everywhere. I've actually had the same unused tram ticket in my pocket for the last four days since I keep thinking that I'll use it and then I decide to walk instead. I do love this pedestrian society, although I think part of the walking is indicative of city life rather than a distinctly Czech phenomenon (this bodes well for me since I am Boston-bound in the fall). I've also come to love mass transit which is rather a surprise since I grew up on a small island in Maine and used to think I was incapable of figuring out things like bus schedules or metro lines. Anyways, this is the view that greeted me after a steep climb up the hill to the castle.

Groggy at the castle

So as I mentioned in the post before this, I wasn't feeling my best when I visited the castle today. However since I had hiked all the way up there I figured I might as well walk around a little bit and a ticket to see just the ground floor was only 50 kc. One part of the exhibit was amazing because they had removed the floor and placed a grate over it which you could walk along. This way the excavations and the foundation were visible.
As I wandered around in this basement labyrinth I had a series of adorable Czech women pointing me in the right direction. The museum at the castle seems to have decided that they are only going to employ sweet older Czech women to work for them and I fully approve of this hiring strategy. Every time I entered a new part of the exhibit I was met by a new woman who would speak to me in Czech while I looked at her with a blank expression. One woman asked in Czech if I understand and I said no so she asked "Deutsch nebo Anglicky?" and then gave me a series of directions in English to help guide me through one section of the exhibit. Later, from another woman, I received what sounded like very detailed and helpful directions, they were however in Czech. I spoke some Czech with her and then when she proceeded to tell me something that sounded very important, but was in Czech, I had to answer "ne rozumem" (I don't understand) and she got a confused look on her face. I explained "Sem Americanka, ne mluvite, oh wait, uhh, ne mluvem cheski" (at first I told her she doesn't speak Czech, I make this mistake often). At this point she smiled and told me my Czech was very good and then continued telling me very detailed and important instructions in Czech. Perhaps my deer-in-the-headlights look actually looks to others like a complete-comprehension-of-everything-you-are-saying-to-me-look. I had this same problem at French Immersion camp in high school where everyone thought I must be completely fluent because I just nodded and smiled whenever people spoke to me. I will work on this and make sure that my face always looks appropriately confused.

Spilberk

The castle itself. I walked around quite a bit outside, there are extensive walking trails and there were many people out and about with their dogs or small children. I bought a ticket for just the ground floor since I was still not feeling great and I was a little confused when the lady threw a bunch of options at me, so I did not get to see the dungeons but just walking around outside was enough and I can always go back.
Mom, you build walls like this right? I mean, I could easily mistake this for something we have in our back yard.
The translation of the information about the bells was pretty funny. I'm not sure I can remember it well enough to pass on the amusement, but I believe there was something in there about how they chime for whole hours from 9am to 3pm.
I just kind of have a thing for doors, they're pretty. There is a whole folder of pictures of doors from my India trip, so consider yourself lucky I only posted one.
Looking down into the yard the fortifications were quite impressive, I think if I had bought the correct ticket I would have been able to walk around down in there and see all the spooky cellar dungeons.

Because Tom said I could

So Tom also said that I could post a picture of him, so here is the diligent Fulbrighter in his office in Masaryk. The university is beautiful inside with a huge swooping marble staircase and lots of natural light. There is also a cafe in the basement that has tables and big amphitheatre style seating with stairs built in. We sat down there today to enjoy cappuccinos and coconut biscuits before my solo castle adventure (the biscuits are stacked wafers with coconut cream in between then dipped in chocolate, mmmm).
After hiking up the hill to get to the castle I turn around and there is Masaryk University (see it's to the left of the brick church) so I waved and waved to Tom but he didn't wave back, he must not have seen me.

Dragon or Alligator, you decide

So after showing Tom the picture of the Alligator that I took today he showed me a story about it in one of the Brno guides we have (and in case you're wondering, the picture above has nothing to do with this story, it's just pretty, consider it a photographic non-sequiter). The old story that is told about Mr. Alligator (remember I am looking for a good name for him in the posting below so until I hear one that really fits his personality I am going to have to be formal) is that he wandered away from a group of comedians and became a real nuisance to the townspeople (as most giant carnivorous beasties are) so a prisoner in the Spilberk suggested they use a dead sheep as bait and fill it with quick lime. Sure enough Mr. Alligator fell for the plan and quickly "slake" (the English translation is a little on the iffy side) and was then hung in front of City Hall.
However, the real story is even better than the myth. In 1608 the dragon (oh, did I forget to mention that Mr. Alligator's alias is Brno Dragon since he was believed to be a dragon) was given by a Turkish delegation to King Matthiad. Now, while it was a very rare and costly gift, it didn't really go with any of King Matthiad's furnishings (really, when you think about it, does anything match Alligator/Dragon skin?) so he donated (also known as re-gifting) it to the city of Brno.

A teacup day

So I got home and realized not only did I have my teacup (and saucer) purchasing adventure but while I was waiting at the post office in between watching the little dog tied up outside and hoping I had enough koruna (Czech currency) to mail the two letters and all the postcards, I noticed that along with the cards that were for sale, there were also some little picture stickers. These were obviously for some lucky little Czech child (I think they make them cuter here, along with the dogs) since they had pictures of things like boats, trains, umbrellas and trousers and then the words in both Czech and English with pronunciation guides for the English spellings. Obviously a small child would be delighted by this, but so was I since my language skills (in Czech, hopefully not in English) are about the same as a three year old, although that is probably an insult to all Czech toddlers of average intelligence. It really is true though since I know how to say "I want," "No," "Yes," and "Please," obviously words that most toddlers are well versed in (especially the "I want" and "No"). However, most exciting about these stickers was that one of the little pictures was of a cup and saucer, just like the ones I had purchased and were in my bag at that very moment. I wish I could tell you all that this now means I know the Czech word for cup but I seem to have forgotten it after all the excitement of actually having enough money to mail the letters, and then promptly dropping ALL my change on the floor (which was pretty darn embarrassing and I ran out of there in a hurry even though I apparently missed a 1 kc coin because the old man behind me kept saying "tady, tady" or "there, there" and pointing to the corner, oh well, it's worth about a nickel, I think I'll live). But, in summation, it was a double teacup day!