Lately, the frequency and regularity
with, which I uploaded posts on the blog is comparable to the transparency of
the Belarusian electoral system. Nonetheless, I decided it’s time: time to sum
up some of the events of the first semester in Prague. I’ll pick a few
subjectively most interesting things.
1. Czech
elections:
Those took place in late October. At first sight, not even close to an event
that would attract attention of an average Erasmus student, right? Wrong.
Already the campaign was quite eventful. One of the parties, which gained close
to 20% of votes is led by some German-Czech aristocrat whose facial appearance
would suggest that his roots lie somewhere between rural Moldova and the
Bosnian highlands. If this wasn’t enough, his electoral posters portrayed him
on a James Bond themed dark background trying to pull off a Bond smile, yet
achieving a level of charm similar to this of an elephant speeding through
African wastelands. Soon after the elections I found out that Czech politicians
are the second least-trusted political in the world, right after Tanzanian
elite. I wonder why.
2. A
cultural expedition to Warsaw: Also during the final week of October I visited my hometown
together with a group of German and French volunteers (the Germans promised
they wouldn’t stay this time around). The first and only disappointment struck
my companions a few days before departure when they revealed the level of their
geographical knowledge of Central Europe. “What? It takes 10 hours to get to
Warsaw? I thought it’s like 4 hours away”. Gathering all my patience, I calmly
explained that the capital of Poland is in fact over 600km away, we are going
by bus not by some bourgeois TGV or other fast vehicle and that Polish roads on
this route still do not quite fulfil the European standards. Also, the bus
stopped in a couple of other smaller Polish cities. In order to make time fly
faster we purchased a couple of divine beverages, which we consumed during the
first hours of the trip. Sleep was somewhat easier afterwards. The stay itself
was surprisingly productive. Aside from the obvious nighttime activities whose
details will not be disclosed at the request of the aforementioned companions
(What happens in Warsaw... blah blah blah) we managed to see most of the city.
Needless to say, I tried to point out to my German friends’ whose fault it is
that the majority of the buildings look chaotic and were constructed after the
end of World War II. We returned
safely and in one piece (which was not a given).
3. A
cultural expedition around the Czech Republic: This happened around the end of November
when 5 of us fit into a Skoda (Skoda. What else?) and travelled 800km in three
days. The landscapes were absolutely outstanding. Castles and old towns of
places outside of Prague also surprised us positively. On top of that, our
accommodation wasn’t of the worst standard either. This was what we did not
expect especially after hearing the locations and names of our hostels: Horni
19 in Brno and Hostel Havana in Cesky Krumlov. I must say the names were not
close as attractive as some other global hotel chains would be. Giving our car
back, a friend who travelled with us expressed her satisfaction with the car we
rented (the cheapest one on offer, of course). The employee of our car rental
looked at us as if he was about to have a heart attack. The only disappointing
episode of the trip was the state of the main motorway in the country. It
looked and felt like a whole division of Soviet tanks travelled on it just
yesterday, not over 40 years ago.
Jan
