Deep thoughts

Prague is, just as promised, completely fascinating.  The main reason it is so, I believe, is not just because it has beautiful Baroque architecture still intact, or because it has an old bridge crossing a river with charming views of a castle.  Nor is it because it has modern conveniences or places with fun and funky atmospheres.  No, it is not even because it has delicious, delicious beer.  I think it is because the Czech Republic, and Prague in particular, have such a recent history, which put all of those other attributes in perspective.

From Prague Part 1

Significant events shaping the country have occurred within our lifetimes and within the lifetimes of those we know.  I was 10 years old when the Velvet Revolution occurred.  All I really remember about the fall of communism is President Reagan making some sort of remark about Michel Gorbechav tearing down the Berlin Wall, but the specifics are fuzzy.  I knew that Czechoslovakia was no longer a country, but I didn’t know how or why that happened.  The most I could relate to the Czech Republic before I came was that Jaromir Jagr, one of my favorite Pittsburgh Penguin hockey players in the early 90s, was from this area.

Somehow, just being alive when all of these important events happened made it all the more interesting to learn more about the role this region played in the World Wars and the rise and fall of communism.  To help us brush up on history, and to learn even more, we visited the Museum of Communism.  The museum takes you through the “the Dream, the Reality, and the Nightmare.”

I knew a little bit about the “Dream” from my Marxism class in college, but I didn’t know much about the practical aspects of communism or socialism other than the general sentiment that they were bad.  The museum seeks to show you a little bit what life was like, such as the indoctrination of school children, the barter system that was created between those who had anything of value, the alternate currency that was created for foreign luxury goods, and the spying on potential dissenters.  It is unconceivable to me that a government regulate even something as intimate as the creation of art, but that’s what happened – as recent as the 70s and 80s.

The musuem also featured the ardent dissenters of communism, such as the student who lit himself on fire in response to the Soviet occupation of Prague in 1969 to control Czechoslovakia’s President’s efforts at softening communism.  One group of dissenters were the banned rock’n’roll group the Plastic People of the Universe.  To look at them, they look like the long-haired hippies that were protesting different problems in the United States.  In a society where information was banned, it is interesting that similarities exist in two totally different worlds.

It is weird to think that at a time when I was sitting through history classes in the United States, learning about things that happened years before my time, Czechoslovakia changed its entire form of government and its economy.  Over the course of several weeks in November 1989, Czechoslovakians protested their communist government, culminating in the surrender of the communist government and appointment of a new government (i.e., the Velvet Revolution).  Four years later, Czechoslovakia split into two separate countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Looking around today, it is hard to tell that the Czech Republic used to be a communist society.  The irony that the museum is located next to a casino and above a McDonalds is not lost on the creators of the museum, who created posters mentioning that fact.  The area around Wencelas Square, the site of many protests, including one where the protesting student set himself on fire, is now home to every international chain you can think of.  The streets are filled with tourists from all around the globe.

Some people put down Prague because it does attract so many tourists.  There is no doubt that Prague receives an amazing amount of tourists – in fact, we have encountered more people from the United States here than anywhere else on our trip.

But I think the tourism, itself, is an important part of Prague. The fact that Prague is an international travel destination participating in the world economy just over 20 years after fall of communism is precisely what makes Prague such a fascinating place to visit.

A Whole Lot of Nothing

I was going to write lots of posts about Valencia, especially since we were there for 10 days, but sitting here in Prague, Valencia seems like a distant memory.

It is not that we didn’t enjoy our time there. Like all of the Spanish cities we visited, we really liked Valencia. It is just that nothing exciting happened while we were there. I mentioned previously that due to our excitement over staying in an apartment for a change, we spent a lot of time relaxing. There is not much you can say about that. First, we slept in. Second, we made eggs for breakfast. Third, we surfed the internet and read. Fourth, we went for a walk.  Fifth, we looked for a replacement camera…

It was nice to relax in Valencia, because the two months so far have been anything but relaxing. Travel is stressful. Every day involves countless decisions, endless feelings of unfamiliarity, money limitations, getting lost, and figuring things out. Simple tasks often are a two step process, because all too often something goes wrong the first time and you have to set out again, with newly acquired information, to accomplish what you wanted to do the first time. Even something as simple as getting something to eat can be a big production, because first you have to figure out where to go, how to get there, what exactly they are serving, what to order, how much to order, how to express what you want, and how much it is. Even simple sightseeing or wandering is tiring – there is a lot more activity in our days than we ever experienced sitting at our desks back home. Look, travel fatigue is a problem I know many people who are stuck at work would kill to have, but it is a problem nonetheless. And you may not believe me, but there are days where I am hot, tired, and cranky where I have actually muttered the words, I might rather be at work than deal with this.

Of course, we all know that’s not really true.

So if one is in the mood to just hang out for a while, Valencia is the perfect city to do so.   After spending two weeks in Spain in earlier in our trip, and leaving and re-entering on three separate occasions, Spain began to feel familiar and more like home, which is what we needed for a little while.  Compared to other Spanish cities, there seemed to be less tourists, and more Valencians just living their lives. The weather was sunny almost every day. Although it often topped 80, it got decent breezes from the sea. Some years back, the city diverted its river, and put a park in its place. The result is a winding green space in the old riverbed, where at any given time people are lounging, playing soccer, running, riding bikes, or walking.

Valencia is at once both very modern and very historic. There is a dichotomy between its architecture. Many of the buildings seemed to be blah, ugly high rises.

Yet it also has grand historic buildings, such as the site of the former silk market, or its cathedral housing the Holy Grail (the cup from which Jesus reportedly drank at the Last Supper).

It also is home to the very futuristic City of Arts of Sciences, a fantastic complex of geometric lines.

You would think that a city on the Mediterranean would be focused on the sea, but if it wasn’t for the fresh seafood everywhere, you would almost forget that Valencia is seaside. The beach, or at least the portion we visited, is nothing to write home about, but there are fantastic paella restaurants up and down the promenade. Valencia is the birthplace of paella, and actually features chicken and rabbit as the main type of paella. All of the rice based dishes we had were fantastic, owing to the local rice.

It is a good thing our need to cook coincided with our stay in Valencia, which abounds with local, fresh produce. In addition to oranges, we had great local tomatoes and olive oil. Besides the neighborhood bakery where we often made meals out of empanadas, we were frequent customers at the Central Market. As the name implies, it is a large market in the center of town, featuring every type of food you could need to cook a feast. The first day we visited, we literally followed our noses, letting our sniffers lead us to the sweetest smelling strawberries.

We can vouch that Valencia is a good place to go shopping, both of the real and window variety. I spent some time wandering in and out of funky shops in the Barrio de Carmen neighborhood. We surely visited every camera store in Valencia for our search for a replacement camera and accessories. We also surely visited every shoe store in Valencia in my search for a replacement for sandals that were not a good fit. Although shoe shopping in Spain was now old hat, it became increasingly clear with every shoe store that I apparently have the largest feet ever known to mankind. I wear a US size 10. Prepared in advance this time, my research indicated that a 10 converted to a 42. Upon inquiry of whether the store might have a certain shoe in a size 42, the response typically was 42? Commence sharp intake of breath and vehement head shaking. Oooh. Maybe a 41. There is no way we have a 42. Then the salesperson would return with a 40. Maybe this would work?

From Shopping in Valencia

Luckily, I found a stylish, comfortable Spanish brand called Wonders where I took a 41. In case you haven’t noticed my repeating wardrobe, it primarily consists of a green shirt and blue shirt. Combined with my blue purse, I have been sporting a very blue and green centric look. So of course the only Wonders sandals (or really, any sandals) that fit me was a colorful blue and green pair. They are blue leather with green soles. I think I found the only size 41 in the entire city. I should know, as every time I saw a shoe store, I popped in to see if they had size 41 Wonders in a different color so I wouldn’t be so monochromatic. They didn’t, so blue and green it is. I later realized that the walls in our Valencia apartment are painted blue and green. I am surrounded by blue and green.

5 years

Five years ago today, Sean and I got married.  It is hard to believe that five years have gone by since then.  In that timeframe, we bought, renovated, and sold our first house; got new jobs and quit those jobs; and left our lives behind at home to travel the world for a year. Some of our wedding guests are no longer with us, and I miss them all. But just as many have been born in those five years, and our flower girls and ring bearers are all grown up now. Our marriage still obtains strength and support from our relationships with our fantastic friends and family.  And even though we bicker nearly every day on this trip, our relationship is just as strong as it was five years ago.

Every time we celebrate our wedding anniversary, we actually celebrate an even longer relationship. We started dating in June 1998 – 12 whole years ago. I remember sitting on a fishing dock with my friend Scott, who was fond of saying that summer, Look around.  Did you ever picture yourself here, with these people, doing this? They were good times.

You never know where life might take you.  Did I ever think 12 years ago, or even 5 years ago, that we would be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary in Prague?  Not a chance.  But here we are, with 10 more months of travel and exploration in front of us.

Happy Anniversary, Sean.  I wouldn’t want to do this trip with anyone other than you.  Here’s to celebrating this and future anniversaries – and ordinary days – in exciting places.

You don’t need a museum to find art.

Normally, graffiti everywhere is a bad thing, but there sure are some artistic spray painters in Valencia.  I enjoyed wandering around Barrio del Carmen finding more and more graffiti.  It also makes siesta time less dreary.  During siesta time (anywhere from 1:30 to 5:30, depending on the city and the store), Spanish stores close their metal gates, making the street look a little neglected.  In Barcelona, there was a lot of graffiti on the gates, but all of it was of the dodgey variety.  Spanish cities can be confusing – and interesting – because each time you wander down the street, you find new stores and lose track of ones you’ve previously seen.  So it is nice to have some art to look at while you are trying to find that store you just know you saw yesterday.

Here’s a sampling of the graffiti artists’ work:

From Valencia Graffiti

Two months…and we are back in business!

We left Pittsburgh exactly 60 days ago.  On one hand, it feels like we have been travelling forever, but we are only 2/12 of the way through our trip.

The first two weeks in Spain felt like a vacation: new, different, and fun.  Then the second two weeks in Paris were like a more exciting version of home, with friends and homey apartment comforts.  Then there was Morocco, and, well, you know how that was.  Returning to Spain again felt familiar, and we’ve spent a lot of the time ironing out the kinks of our travel style and getting into a groove.

Some things are obvious: we get pretty cranky without constant internet; we are not a fan of shared bathrooms, but will do it if we absolutely have to; and a car is not always the best way to travel.  It is fun bouncing around, but it is tiring and leaves little time for down time.  So we’ve decided for the Eastern/Central Europe portion of our trip that we are going to try to see less and stay at least a week in each location.  One thing that is pretty clear is that the quality of our accommodations directly affects our happiness, but it is also the biggest component of our budget.  We added up how much we spent on everything so far, and if continue at this pace, we’ll be 50% over our yearly budget.  Yikes.  But that figure is misleading, because we are doing the most expensive part of our trip first.  Or at least it better be.

Some homesickness has kicked in, particularly for me, and so to remedy that, we ended up chilling in an apartment for 10 days in Valencia.  I’ll write more about Valencia later, but the reality is we haven’t been doing a whole lot other than enjoying life like this is our home and it is a perpetual weekend.  (Well, what we imagine a weekend to be like, because Sean and I spent most of our weekends back left were either working at work (me) or working on our house (mostly him).  We really like the idea of having a temporary apartment.  It lets you daydream about living in a foreign land for a while.  We actually have had two apartments in Valencia.  We first booked one at 11 Flats for 3 days, and got a great deal (about $54/night) because it was booked last minute and filled the gap for the rental company.  See – just like home:

Then we decided that maybe we weren’t in such a hurry to move on, and booked another apartment through the same company at 5 flats for 7 days (about $76/night).

Both apartments are in the heart of the Barrio de Carmen neighborhood, feel positively enormous compared to the tiny hotel rooms in which we have stayed, have fast internet, and modern decor.  Our current place even has a washing machine, which is really the holy grail for “backpackers.”  I decided to wash my clothes today just because I could.  The apartments, of course, also have kitchens, which has allowed us to shop at the markets and cook real meals.  (So Matt, tell your Aunt Ceci not to worry, we won’t have to eat out for 365 days straight).

We’ve also been filling our days with running errands, a need that does not disappear when you cross borders.  One big errand we accomplished is re-purchasing our camera.  It looks like our renters insurance is going to cover the camera, minus a $500 deductible.  We’ve been scouring Valencia for a replacement since we arrived last week.  There are not many camera stores in Valencia, and our internet searches turned up nothing.  It took days of scouting to find what we needed, accomplished by a combination of asking the reception desk at the apartment company, asking a random photography studio, and keeping our eyes peeled while we walked around in popular shopping areas.  In the off chance anyone is ever in Valencia and in need of a camera or equipment, check out the El Corte Ingles department store on Colon (think Macys, with electronics), a photo store by the bullring (think independent photo store), FNAC on some street I forget (think Best Buy), and FotoPrix in the Nuevo Centro mall (think Ritz Camera).  Sean entertained himself by re-researching camera options.  He dreamed of going smaller and getting something new to play around with, I dreamed of taking pictures with my SLR again.  We pondered lots of alternatives, such as getting a compact micro four thirds camera, or reducing our zoom capabilities by getting a smaller lens.  In the end, when we stumbled across the same camera and lens we had before as a set for a great price, Sean’s dreams of lightening our load were dashed one more time.  We are now the proud owners of a Canon XSi (450D here in Europe) and 18-200 mm lens once again.  Yippee!