Down the rabbit hole, to Bratislava

This weekend, it was time to go to Bratislava. Two of our colleagues from the Master’s are there for their internships and because we are trying to visit as many of our mates as possible, we decided to head east.

Our original plan was to take the train or the bus from Prague, about 4hrs trip to Bratislava so it’s quite manageable. The good thing about living in the Czech Republic is that you truly are in the heart of Europe and can easily access several countries from here. And Prague is the hub of transportation in the country; you have frequent busses and trains to all destinations. The down side to Czech transportation is that trains are more often than not late…

This time though it was us who were late (for reasons independent of our will) so we had to change to plan B, taking the car. The high way from Prague to Bratislava is quite bumpy (nothing compared to the so called Romanian highways, but still a bumpy ride). In fact the highway is “affectionately” called the Tankodrom. For one thing, because the Russians could easily use it to bring their tanks here, in case the Czechs decided to rebel again like in '68. The main reason for this nickname is that the road is, bumpy, quite bad pavement, not really a pleasure to drive. To je skoda! It's a pitty. The scenery is really nice. (Didn't take any pictures, to busy driving or doing something else, besides, it's bumpy, doesn't make for clear photos, but take my word on it: Prague-Bratislava is a pretty nice trip. Scenery-wise. And you can visit Austerlitz.)

Once in Bratislava, at about 10 o'clock in the evening, we started looking for our friend's street. And although we had both visited the city before, it wasn't easy. Poor indication and maze-like streets behind the communist buildings in the neighborhood.

We went out that night and I can tell you that there is night life in Bratislava, people going out to clubs and bars, having a drink, dancing. Quite fun. Our friends were telling us that people usually go out of town during the weekends so it may seem deserted. Nevertheless there were things to do. I had a Bloody Mary in a lounge bar near Michalska Brana, the famous rendez-vous place in Bratislava (Picture form last November).

The next day we went to see some Siberian tigers in a reserve about 30 km into the Slovakian countryside. It was in a part of the country with a strong Hungarian minority. The countryside resembled a bit what I already knew from Romanian and Hungarian countrysides so nothing special here, plains, lots of grass, some trees, crops, the works. This is one of the tigers, and us...

In the afternoon, we visited Bratislava. It really is a little city, as it's logo goes: Little big City. When I was here last time, in November, I basically went on foot from the main railway station to the main bus station and I practically saw all there was to see. I did profit from a local guide this time so it was a nice experience.

There were certain places on my list of things to see. I always make up such a list in my head when I go somewhere and I always document myself in advance as to what is interesting to see.

So my list included the Radio building, an upside down pyramid; the big square with Napoleon's statue on a bench. Here you have the pictures to prove that we were there. Les lapins cretins a Bratislava.

Bratislava's old town has been restored and is really a pleasure to visit it. Beautiful houses, restaurants, bars. It's a bit like I'd like Bucharest to be. Maybe in a few years... It has nothing of Prague's grandeur, but you can see an effort in attracting tourists and in keeping them satisfied that the got what they came there for.

There are things to do and see, such as a very interesting exposition on India, Nepal, Tibet and the Himalayas at the National Museum, really well taken care for and interesting.

The city's arhitecture and the some times a bit strange statues that you find in the streets are another attraction point. A good excercise of marketing for municipalities (Bucharest should take notes). I don't think Slovaks particularly like their capital, it does have a small town feel and look, but they have managed to attract tourists here (Twin Cities campaign with Vienna is a good exemple of marketing).

The only thing that could spoil a tourists trip, in a really, really bad way, is the lack of service. Going into pizza places, book stores, at the museum, the staff will not always be very friendly. Even the police are not nice (gave as a ticket for parking in the wrong place, but there aren't many parking places either). The Czechs are know for lousy service, but the Slovaks could posibly be worse.

All in all, Bratislava was a nice gettaway for the weekend and it was a pleasure to see our friends again. Felt a bit like back in Cluny. Looking forward to our next get toghether.

And a last picture in the series: The Silly Rabbits do Bratislava.

At the crossroad: Strasbourg

Like every weekend, I took a trip (I know I don't write about each and one of them, but trust me, I don't sit around, I'm just a procrastinator so I never get to write about all I want do). The last trip was to Strasbourg to meet up with friends: Russians Ukrainian, Uzbek, a Romanian and our gracious French hosts. A tour of Babel with one common language: French (changes a bit from English being the mother of all tongues). Much fun was had, good food, good wine (Alsatian wines are now my favorites) all in all, good times.


It wasn't suny, still we went out for a visit of the city. There are quite a few things to see and even thought I have visited on different occasions, Strasbourg still manages to surprise me. You can instantly see that it has always been quite a rich part of the world: park, beautiful houses, monuments, a Cathedral that once stood as the highest building in the world.

Strasbourg is a unique place also because of it's history, that of a piece of land that two nations fought over for centuries. An expert eye can tell you only by the architecture that you're not in France, but not in Germany either: Strasbourg has it's own style. And it suits it just fine.

You have the large, central, German-style square and the large, long, almost Haussmann like avenues. And than you see buildings that you won't find in either of these styles.

The young lady climbing a pole will meet a guy right over the boarder between France and Germany.

The Little France reminded me a bit of Amsterdam's canals and riverside cafes, a nice place to stroll around or take a tour in a bateau mouche.

The name of the neighbourhood, one of the oldest and best preserved (a UNESCO Heritage site), is quite a funny story. No, they didn't bring all the French toghether in this strip of land surrounded by water. In fact this was the poor neighbourhood, a sort of Red Quarter with pimps and prostitutes. Of course there were frequent outbreaks of all sort of STD's and because back in the day a sexually transmitted desease was also known as a French desease, the neighbourhood got the name of little France.

Of course, now it's quite expensive and full of tourists, restaurants, cafes, nothing like what it used to be. I think the houses look like ginger bread houses (btw, ginger bread is one of the local specialties, they love it here and it's quite good).

And the Cathedral, Notre Dame de Strasbourg, just one picture of it, but I'll put up more in another post.

There are many strories and legends surrounding this Cathedral. One of them says that the Devil is caught inside and all tourists try to look for it's statue, somewhere on the facade. I dare you to go there and recognize him. The wind is hauling outside the Cathedral, waiting for it's trapped master. The stained glass rosary is also very beautiful and unlike others it doesn't have religious motives but it has to do with the town's wealth and prestige.

And I would have endded this post here, but I have to say a word about the European Union and the buildings related to it. I tried to vote this Sunday, as you know it was election day for the European Parliament (the building is pictured below, see how tiny we are in comparison?).

I didn't manage to vote but I strolled around the neighbourhood where the European buildings are: some old and a bit communist like in style, some new and shinny.

In the posh neighbourhood where all the Consulates are I saw this Art-Nouveau house that reminded me of Barcelona and how much I want to go there and see Gaudi's buildings(apparently the architect on this one also worked with Gaudi).

I really felt like I was in the heart of Europe with all this places and buildings reminding me of placed I visited or want to visit on the old continent. It's a great city, always something to discover. In fact I have more to say on the subject...

Wanderlust

I've become a wanderer, a gypsy. Europe is my Avenue. My life, exotic. If I tell you my story, you won't believe it. I carry my house with me, everything I treasure is hidden in my heart, and everything else is in a luggage. And I travel light. I'm going far.

My life has become a travel novel. I am the embodiment of globalization and everything that is good about it. Until a few months ago I lived in a water mill. In France. Owned by a Swiss painter of Polish origin, married to an Austrian. And we were 5 to live there: 2 Russians, an Uzbek married to a French woman (she was living in Uzbekistan at the time) and French with his Romanian girlfriend. And it was a pretty good arrangement. Every day we'd go to school in a Harry Potter like environment, in an Abbey where we met at least 5 other nationalities.

And now, I'm in the Czech Republic, I still have the same French boyfriend . I live in another watermill with Czechs and Bulgarians. And I work in a French company; I speak English every day and talk to people from all over Europe, regularly. For me, globalization is just a watermill.

On top of that I'm in a different place every weekend, in France, the Czech Republic, now I'm going to Bratislava. Next? Who knows?

It's what I've always wanted, a life full of excitement, travel, interesting people, good food. And I have it now but all I'm thinking about at this moment is to go home for a few days in August. And make my life simpler. Why can't we be completely satisfied?

On top of all my dreams of going away, I'm homesick. I guess this is a sort of wanderlust as well. And I’m happy with this and grateful for all the things in my life.

Venting

I have so many projects and plans, I'm almost scared to do anything. And all I do is enter this procrastination loop and seem to never be able to go out. Like now. Writing here instead of doing something else.

The worst thing is that I feel like nothing will happen to make me change. As if no punishment, divine or human will come for this state of mind.

And I should really be more motivated than that, because I have the best motivation in the world to go on. But I just freeze and don't want to do anything. Just stay in blissful happiness. And make everyday a weekend.

Don't worry, I'm not depressed, just lazy. Et de malhumeur. And a bit tired. I just need to snap out of it. Oh and also, I don't seem to find my words today, I have a bit of a hard time expressing myself, and lot of work to do.

Ok, now that I've finished complaining, back to our regularly scheduled program.

A colorful journey - Mary Cassatt

If you’ve accessed the search engine Google on Friday the 22nd, you have certainly seen the change in the logo, marking the 165th anniversary of Mary Cassatt’s birth. If you haven’t clicked on the logo to learn more, shame on you, you’ve missed a glimpse into a world of tranquility and color, a journey back into childhood and summer holidays.

First of all : I’m a painting buff, so get used to some talk about paintings, after all this is my place, so I write about whatever interests me. I can’t help drooling in front of a beautiful painting and I’ve been known to spend hours in museums just looking at the impressionist masters. There…that's the truth, like it or not, I'll spend more time in a museum than in a shop (with the possible exception of H&M, but that's different).

This being said, I have to mention that my parents’ bookcase holds many treasures. Among those, an art album with American impressionist painters, that’s how I became fascinated with Mary Cassatt’s work. Browsing the glossy pages I came by something spectacular, games of light and colour that really fascinated me. And this little girl, Sarah:

And another image so you can really see what I'm talking about. She often made portaits of her sisters or brothers, their children, people on the street, but also hired models to pose. So there are several versions of the same painting, or the same person at different ages. Sarah certainly had a lot of paintings done of her.

I don't know what became of Sarah, I think she was a niece of Cassatt's. She remaind's me of a picture I saw of my mum at about the same age, and maybe that's where the fascination came from. Other than that, I love the wamth that surrounds the painting, and of course, the little dog. I find the painting typical of Mary Cassatt's style: she had a deep understanding of children and women and these where her subjects of choice, doing normal things.

Cassatt thought marriage was incompatible with her career and despite a long lasting relationship with French painter Degas, she never married or had children. She painted mostly portets and scenes related to every day life, glimpses of quiet, tranquil living, many portaits of women with their children.Cassatt was close to the Impressionist, exhibiting with them and being active in their movement. Her use of colors and light is apparent of such a relationship. Under their inspiration, she took her work outside the workshop, always carrying a sketch book and this can be seen in her painting: snapshots of life.

She was a modern woman, refusing the gender discriminations of her time, she did her best to brake boundaries. It was said she was too outspoken for her own good, although less so with age. When she was unhappy with the learning she received at the Academy, she took it upon herself to improve and study the Old Masters. Cassatt travelled extensively through Europe, considering the only way to succed is to broaden your horizons.

What fascinated me was her use of colors. Although this was one of the things that was criticated during her lifetime, I find that the bright colors and warm tones bring the subjects to life.

All the pictures are from Wikipedia, where you will also find more information on Mary Cassatt and the Impressionists. Also worth a look, the American Impressionists.

La Provence

When I left France the first time, the only practically unexeplored region was Provence. I had already seen a large part of the West Coast, the Center, Paris and if you count Mont St Michel as being part of Normandy, that was ticked off the list as well. So the only thing of interest left for me to see at that point was La Provence.

Straight out of a Cezanne painting, that's how I imagined it. Tall, scorched with sun - white mountains, fields of wheat colored with red poppies. Van Gogh is one of my favorite painters, it's fields of gold and Cypher trees haunt my dreams. I had to see the lavender fields with my own eyes. La Provence was like an illusive mirage, the opportunity to visit this corner of France never arose.

Until last weekend when I made a (very) long trip for a very good friend's wedding, near Aix-en-Provence. And the pictures that came alive before my eyes were not dissaponting, though different from my imagination.

Let's start at the begining. In Bakov nad Jizerou, where I never imagined I would end up but where I'm spending my weeks for now. We left by car, driving through the Czech Republic and Germany, to France. A 9 hour trip I have nothing interesting to say about, maybe because it's not the first time I take this trip and the novelty of it wore off a while ago. An enjoyable trip every time, nice scenery, good roads most of the way (although the germans keep working on those highways and it gets pretty annoying after a while). It's really a pleasant trip.

Next evening we took a night train to Marseille, the gate to France for so many people (la goutte d'or). And now you're expecting some nice description about it... Well, it's a bit like Bucharest only dirtier and with better scenery, sort of... Marseille has mountains in the back drop. Two views from a friend's flat.

Aix en Provence though, is something special, imposing arhitecture, fountains in every square as the city was a spa in roman times, and loads of tourists. And of course the famous Cours Mirabeau. Wewalked around the down town, sat at a cafe in one of the many squares, listened to music and then we left for the hills around the town.

La Provence... well it was different from what I had imagined, mainly because it rained a lot this year, so everything was green. But the cypher trees were there, and the poppies, and the mountains were sun drenched as ever. And there was the faint smell of lavender in the warm evening air.

Praha + Plzen

Last weekend was a special one, I visited Prague, for the 3rd time. I think it's one of the few places I've visited more than once or twice, and that's because I liked the city. Despite the many tourists and the fact that you'll have a hard time finding a real, genuine Czech, the city is quite beautiful and fun, there is something for everyone here : museums, boat trips, the castle, beautiful gardens, lots and lots of excellent pubs and restaurants. The weather was fine so people were out biking, strolling, or taking a boat ride on the Vltava.

I've been to Prague for the first time last november when I went on a road trip with some friends and I spent a whole weekend wandering the streets during the day and the pubs during the night. I had a great tourguide, a friend living in Prague, and now I can share some of his little stories and jokes, plus, I'm learning new things every time. So I think, modesty aside, I am a pretty good guide myself.

So, last weekend, we started from the other side of the Fred and Ginger dancing building. I'm not always a fan of contemporary architecture, but this building, that looks like it's being sucked into the eye of a tornado, is quite nice, and not to damaging to the surroundings...or to your eyes.

We continued towards Narodni Divadlo, the national theater, here in a picture from last November. The theater was build as part of the Czech national revival, with everyone contributing. Shortly after construction though, it burned and had to be rebuild, and again, the people gave money. A symbol of the Czechs' love for the theater.

Next to it is the second scene of the theatre, one of the communist buildings that stain the face of Prague. Luckly though, the city was not as plagued by the communist style as much as Bucharest was.

We continued along Charles Bridge. Be careful if you are in Prague in this period as the bridge is under construction and parts of it are closed, making the pedestrian traffic quite difficult. And it's full of tourists. So there are frequent jams and it's hard even to take a picture, not to mention meeting your beloved on the bridge. (With all the people there, you could pass right next to him or her and never know, luckily, mine was next to me) The artists are still there so you can buy little souvenirs.

Mala strana and Kampa are parts of Prague that I really love because of the bars and the fact that sometimes at night they seem deserted and taking a walk in this part of the city is like going back in time. But in a spring weekend, during the day, tourists are everywhere, so be careful for pickpockets and toilet queues.

The Prague Castle is like a city inside a City, very good view of the town and a nice area to stroll around. I don't recommend going to the Golden Street. I've put pictures so that you don't have to. Tourist paradise here, basically you pay money to see some antique stores with watches and other little nothings. The tunnels in the attics have beautiful armors and weapons but still not that interesting. There is a vineyard on the hill, for the passionate and you can stop for a drink or some good food in a restaurant.

Just across the river is Josefov, the Jewish town. It looks like anything but a ghetto, because this side of town, once prone to inundations was rebuilt and has some of the most beautiful and grand houses. You can still see the sinagogues and the Jewish cemetery. The tour of the synagogues and the cemetery is quite expensive and not really worth the while if you don't have a particular interest. So if you want to see the cemetery and not pay for it, there is a trick, a small window in a metal door, right across the street from the back entry of the Rudolfium. You'll certanly see tourists peeking through it. Otherwise, the quarter is interesting if you want to buy souvenirs, Bohemia crystal especially.

Another thing I like about Prague is that all the interesting places are within walking distance. Unlike other cities such as London or Paris, where you have to rely heavely on public transportation, here, you can spare yourselfs a few crowns and buy a beer instead. The public network is quite good, covering most of the town with the metro, also it's cheap, but you can walk just as easily.

Close to Josefov is Staromeska Namesti, with St Cyr Church and the Astronomical Clock, just follow the tourists if you don't know where to look. And if you see people waving an umbrella althought it's sunny outside, just know they are guides, so stay close to them, you might hear interesting stuff.

I'll let you in on a secret, I have a plan to start a mass aplause in front of the astronomical clock by strategicaly placing my friends in the crowd.

For shopping, a very good spot is Wenceslas square, where you have Bata, H&M and the works. From there we went to Karlovo Namesti and then took the car back to Plzen.

Next, Plzen on a Sunday afternoon. The fourth city in the Czech Republic, about an hour West of Prague and the only one liberated by the American Army, in WWII, as I came to learn during the weekend. It's quite nice to stroll around, and I think it's also a nice place to live (I only spend some of my weekends there).

The first visit of Plzen was a bar tour and the next day we almost didn't recognize the surroundings. There was a beer festival in the main town square (duh, they produce 70% of Czech beer here). Some picture, just to give you an idea of the look of a normal Czech town (Prague is by no means normal, rather filled with tourists).

In Plzen you'll have no problem to find real Czechs so you can stop them on the street and talk to them, they do exist outside the capital. And me, a crazy Romanian.

Making plans

These days all my plans have been useless, whatever I do, the plan changes all the time. So I start to think: do we really need plans to get ahead? Don't get me wrong, I love making plans, I am right now making a shopping list (nothing glamourous, tomorrow's dinner and that summer skirt I want, maybe a dress too).

My latest plan was to go to Liberec this weekend, but the plan was abruptly changed and instead I spent a wonderful weekend in Prague and Plzen. I'm not sorry for it, in fact, I'm quite happy it all turned out like this, I went barhopping in Plzen, showed Prague to a friend, which is always one of my favourite activities, watched a movie, had interesting discussions, ate good food and drank enough to make me cheery. But what I ask myself now is whether it makes any sense to make plans if you don't stick to them?

We get all excited about a plan, or at least I know I do. We make our life around it sometimes, make plans on top of plans, link them to other things in our lives. We spawn a web of plans, all in a desperate effort to give ourselves the illusion we are in control.

And then we get disappointed because we didn't see our plan come true. Our world seems a tiny bit destabilized, abnormal, spinning out of (our) control even. The plan made it look all that better, made us feel in control, masters of our destinies. And the bubble bursts and we are not gods anymore, we don't know exactly were the road takes us.

In some rare cases - like mine, this time - when the changed plan goes better than the original would, we forget things didn't go as we wanted and can end up saying this was what we always really wanted. Anything to keep the appearence of control.

But does it really help us, to have all this control? Life is so full of surprises and twists out of our reach that no matter how well we prepare everything, it will never be 100% sure. I didn't go to Liberec because of events that were independent to my will or power and that I could not have predicted no matter my preparation (maybe a very very wild dream would have imagined that knock on my door close to midnight, that made me go to Plzen in the morning, but I was completely taken by surprise, and it was a nice one).

Isn't it better sometimes to go with the flow? See what happens next and improvise? Sometimes life can be fun like that too, scary, but fun. So Liberec is for another time, I'll make plans for it when the time comes, but I won't be dissapointed if I get another offer.

Control is just an illusion, all we can do is make a plan, don't get to attached to it and hope for the better. And be open to all possibilities.

My destinations

I am a bit of a day dreamer so as I stay at my office, from time to time my eyes turn towards the window and as I gaze at the distant, almost shadowy mountains, I think of destinations, old and new, nearby or quite far. Almost all the time I'm planning a trip. Right now I have plans for Jablonec, in a few weeks and Bratislava and Hanover when time will permit it. And then I have trips in between, unplanned,but a good surprise, like the one to Strasbourg a few weeks ago.

So where have my day dreams taken me, so far? This is just a list, by no means an exhaustive one, of places I've visited or I'd like to visit.

Countries I've visited: France, United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland.

Countries I'd like to visit: Spain, Portugal, Marocco, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, Iceland, Sweeden, New Zeeland, Russia, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Cuba, Canada. (basically the rest of the known world, but these are just the ones that made the short list).

My philosophy on travel is not to make just a collection of places seen, make a scratch on a wall with my name, I want to get the feeling of the place, get to know the people, feel like more than a tourist. That's why I don't like guided tours, they just take you around, the time to take a picture, tell you an anecdote, but never let you actually breathe in the perfume of the place at your own pace. Which is was I need the most.

And so, I am going to take my own personal tour guide, which is a guide book and my intuition for discovering interesting things and I'll be on my way, towards new adventures.

Stay tunned, pictures to follow to this post.

A walk around the neighbourhood

Yesterday I decided to get out of the house. I wanted to go either to Liberec or to Jablonec. I had a bit of a hard time deciding which to visit first so I decided not to decide for now but to take a walk around my little town. I'll leave the big visit for another weekend. The two towns are connected via a tram and thus are accessible. There's interesting architecture and there's a jewllery museum in Jablonec. So I'll have plenty to see.

For now, I'll share with you some photos from the small town I live in. I really like the houses in the region and gardening is like a national sport around here and everyone has splendid gardens. But I feel weird taking pictures of people's houses. And so I cheat and I take pictures of streets instead. I can capture the house in context this way.


It was just a short walk through the town but the sun was up and it was a really nice spring day so I enjoyed it. People were out riding their bikes, playing with kids, doing chores around the house. Picture perfect suburbia. For a moment I wanted to live on one of those streets, in one of the houses with a beautiful garden and blooming trees.

Not many comments to make, I'll take more photos these days, when I hope I'll discover more (yesterday I had to get back a bit quicker than expected).