Looking for Julie

A few weekends ago we borrowed a car and drove to Salzburg on a quest to feel some of that delicious "Sound of Music" vibe. We were not disappointed; Julie Andrews is still very much in the house (as was what's-his-name Amadeus).

In an effort to bring the von Klimasmith family's child count more in line with that of the von Trapps, we borrowed Ruben, the son of our German friends here. That turned out to be a great idea. On the ride down, the kids watched the movie on one of those portable DVD players so that when we first stepped into the Mirabell Gardens ("Do-Re-Mi") the kids immediately recognized it and were appropriately melodious.

To be fair, I think the real highlight of the trip was just having another kid along for Sophie; we could have been visiting the shooting location for a OSHA training film ("Workplace Safety Part I: Spine-Friendly Chair Adjustments") and Sophie and Ruben wouldn't have cared; they had a blast together. That said, unlike the sets of OSHA training films, Salzburg is extraordinarily kid-friendly. Sophie and Ruben were particularly thrilled with the playgrounds, one near our hotel where they played some kind of "villagers working for a lord" game and another, in the Mirabell gardens that had a extremely tall slide complete with piped-in music from Mozart's "Magic Flute." (Okay, that IS a little strange, but it was very cool).

Our favorite site was the "trick fountain" water garden at Schloss Hellbrunn, a bishop's palace we reached by taking a boat up the River Salzach for about 4 km. Some of the features utilized water power to animate little figurines. In others, the bishop surprised his guests by soaking them with water from hidden jets. Our tour guide was appropriately playful and we all got a taste of the bishop's wet sense of humor. Although the rest of the palace grounds were less aquatic, they were no less beautiful with yet another fantastic playground and the pavilion from the Sound of Music ("I am sixteen going on seventeen").

Going to Austria from the Czech Republic was a little like visiting the US from Mexico (minus the border patrol, tequila, and tasty burritos). Lunch in the Czech Republic costs about $3. In Salzburg, you had to be prepared to spend ~$10! Each! (We are so spoiled.) But you get a lot of aesthetic pleasure for your Euro: the aforementioned playgrounds, clean streets, beautiful parks, good coffee, graffiti-free buildings, etc. The evidence of the cost differential was most pronounced when we crossed the border back into the Czech Republic and ran a Tijuana-esque gauntlet of duty-free stores and brothels, both obviously designed to capture Euros from the nearby Viennese bargain-hunters.

Betsy and I also observed (or at least imagined) a pride in the Austrians . . . maybe even smugness . . . that is absolutely missing from the Czech neighbors who seem much more . . . what is it: angry? resentful? self-consciously wistful? And who could blame them? Before WWI the Czech lands were the industrial center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And although the new Czechoslovak republic was relatively prosperous between the wars, the export-oriented Czech economy never completely recovered from the great depression and WWII. So although both countries were similarly devastated by WWII, the Czech adoption of communism and rejection of the Marshall Plan severely handicapped the Czech economy. By the end of communism, the Czech Republic per capita GDP was something like 5% that of Austria! Even now, the GDP per capital is still much higher in Austria ($36,031) than the Czech Republic ($23,100). The Czechs I've spoken to about this feel a little frustrated. Although their economy is growing very quickly (6%!), they still don't have much purchasing power. With the fall of communism they expected bigger changes sooner. And meanwhile, the Austrians, who actually VOTED for Hitler, are still far ahead!

We got a further taste of this economic reality last weekend when we took advantage of the May Day four-day weekend to go to Hungary (GDP per capita $19, 995) with Ruben and the rest of his family. Though you could see pockets of investments, overall things seemed more run-down than the Czech Republic. But we had a great time. We stayed for two nights in Esztergom on the "Danube Bend." Esztergom has been the seat of Hungarian Catholicism for 1000 years and has a HUGE basilica which loomed above us even as we walked from the train station on the Slovakian side of the Danube and crossed into Hungary. Esztergom is also a great place for hiking. The Slovakian side of the river is relatively flat compared to the hills on the Hungarian side, which meant a great hike up to a castle that used to guard the Danube. But our favorite part of Esztergom was the afternoon we spent playing at their brand new bathing complex which has a "wellness center" and an amazing array of indoor and outdoor swimming pools, whirlpools, and water slides.

The theme of "great bathing" carried forward into Budapest. As is always the case when we venture away from Brno, we were a little overwhelmed by all the tourists (and the price increases that come with them!) . . . it might be a great city to come back to without kids. We didn't do much in the way of conventional sightseeing, but we did go on a child-run railroad, a legacy of the communist era Young Pioneers in which kids aged 10-14 did everything except drive the trains.

But back to bathing. Although it was probably not much fun to be occupied by the Turks, Budapest did get one great thing out of it: a great tradition in public baths. On May Day, we visited the Szechenyi Furdo (baths) in the middle of Varosliget, the huge public park. The park was in full festival spirit: packed with families, food stands, retro-Marxists, and music stages (my favorite sound: a Hungarian pop diva singing the "Flashdance" song. Vat a feilink!). The baths themselves were the epitome of 19th-century cool to the extreme: room after room of pools of different temperature and mineral compositions AND then a huge statue-strewn courtyard with three enormous swimming pools complete with men playing chess in the water and walrus-esque women draped on the steps and sunning themselves. We were there for two and a half hours! I'm either as clean as I'll ever be or I've contracted every known water-borne disease known to man.

Our life here in Brno is still as mellow as always, except we are aware that the clock is ticking (we leave in early July and then go to Croatia for a month before coming home). Sophie's Czech is starting to emerge and both Betsy and I finish teaching at the end of May. Seeing the economic contrasts between countries is a constant reminder of how lucky we are to be in the position to do this exploring. What else can I say? I can't tell you how thrilling it was to roll our suitcases over the Danube from Slovakia into Hungary! Of course, traveling with another family was also a bittersweet reminder of how much we will miss our friends here. But enough sentimentality for now; there will be at least two more blog postings before I sign off and return to my American life that offers NO time for this kind of namby-pamby reflective musing.

Easter Palaces

Spring is HERE for real. Cafes and restaurants are offering outside seating again; Sophie had a nice birthday party at the zoo; the tourist sites that have been shuttered since November have reopened; and people are OUT in droves—we've even attended one barbecue! So much for the ominous warnings of dreary central European weather. For the last month or so the daily highs have crept up from 7 degrees (Celsius) in March to 24 degrees! (24 C=75 F...much higher than what they are supposed to be: 3 and 7 degrees respectively), and we have had virtually no rain. Horrible weather for farmers; great weather for tourists (really, it's like living in California but with absolutely no bean sprouts for your salads).

To celebrate spring, Betsy and I took a short day trip via public bus down to Mikulov, a beautiful hill town in the middle of South Moravia's wine country (Sophie was hiking with her scouts. I love her scouts.). Because Mikulov is so close to the Austrian border it was virtually forgotten during the Cold War. But now flocks of rich Austrians drive (and bike!) north for the wine and cheap, but excellent, food. So, like so many places here, the houses on Mikulov's winding medieval streets can now afford a healthy clean coat of fresh stucco and paint and the town's gorgeous "zamek" (chateau) has been restored. The only tired buildings we saw were the old pilgrimage churches on top of the ancient sacred-pagan limestone hill that overlooks the town. (Really, I don't understand why more people don't come to Southern Movaria to get out their must-see-Europe yah-yahs.)

Besides the legacy of the Cold War, Mikulov also contains a poignant reminder of the seven years of Nazi occupation: the old Jewish cemetery (the newest grave stone was from 1938). We let ourselves into the cemetery with keys given to us at the town information center. Walking under the early blooms of fruit trees and among the fallen gravestones filled us with conflicting emotions: on one hand, grief for all the Jewish citizens of Mikulov who weren't able to be properly buried here and, on the other, appreciation for the serenity and beauty of a graveyard that modern Mikulov has decided NOT to forget. In fact, one of the most heartening sights were all the little memorial pebbles set on many of the gravestones by recent visitors. (Follow this link to learn more about the Jewish practice of leaving stones on graves. Or this one if you want to fully appreciate the story of Mikulov's Jews).

As great as it was, Mikulov was just a warm up for the road trip we took during Sophie's Easter break to southern Bohemia, the highlights of which included (note: many of the following words have characters that are too strange to be recognized by the software running this blog site):

1. Stop in Ceske Budejovice to meet with a friend (and drink the original Budweiser)
2. Two nights in Cesky Krumlov (beautiful medieval town situated in tight U-bend of river and connected with foot bridges. Our rooms were in one of the towers of the old town's fortifications!)
3. Biking around the farmland, forests, and fish ponds around Trebon (original home of our Christmas carp)
4. One night in Jindrichuv Hradec, home of one of MANY beautiful zameks built by the noble clan that controlled Southern Bohemia and, thus, the carp trade
5. A visit to Hluboka nad Vitavou (absolutely bizarre Windsor-castle-esque zamek built by a particularly Anglo-philic, self-indulgent member of the fish clan
6. A night in Telc's mind-blowingly beautiful Renaissance square. By this time, only Betsy wasn't "zameked" out.
7. Brief pilgrimage to Dacice (home of the sugar cube)
8. Stop in Slavonice (yes, yet another Renaissance town, but THIS one has the most "sgraffito" facades (look it up) in the Czech republic AND vaguely eerie bunkers facing the Austrian border)
9. Great picnic in the ruins of Cornstejn castle. Said with American pronunciation, I guess that would be "Corn Palace!" But this was not Kansas. It was was a VERY cool "real" castle overlooking a lake. Sophie knighted us with a strange ceremony including hand fulls of thrown grass and then we had a proper battle among the ruins. It was quite yeomanly.
   

After visiting all those zameks, a visitor from the "new world" can't help but reflect on the enormous amounts of wealth that was thrown by "leaders" at those image-enhancing building projects. I can't remember who said "All art is violence" but when you see these AMAZING buildings with all that AMAZING low-wage craftsmanship, your inner-Marx starts to stir. (That said, if anybody ever gives you a choice to go back in time, shelve your revolution and pick "landed aristocracy." The interiors of these zameks were all masterpieces and, at least, someone would empty your chamber pot for you.)

By the way, speaking of flailing peasants, I must also mention EASTER itself--and not just because one of the customs here is to arm all the boys and men with woven sticks (pomlázky) so they can whip the girls AND get rewarded for it with candy and booze (I'm serious!). They also have wonderful egg decorating traditions (yes, the GIRLS do that, while the boys weave their pomlázky). In the days before Easter ("velikonoce" or "big nights"), the women folk scurry around making and buying the eggs which they hang on trees or branches cut from freshly-blooming shrubbery (it's VERY pretty and puts all our American plastic kitsch to shame).

The girl-whipping takes place on the day after Easter. In the morning, roving males (dads with sons, groups of young boys, horny teens, or single drunk uncles) roam the streets visiting all their female friends and relatives and, theoretically give them a light slap on the legs/buttocks with their pomlazka while reciting a poem. (Tradition says this slapping promotes fertility and frightens away bad spirits. Betsy's female colleagues reminded us that sometimes a stick is NOT a stick (would you call that a "Freudian Stick?") The women "thank" the men by tying ribbons onto their pomlazkas, and giving them decorated eggs, candy, and/or silovice (brandy). By noon, the men stumble home. It's beautiful, in a gender-segregated, ritualized sexual-violence, day-time-Halloween kind of way. If you are into that sort of thing.

Betsy and Sophie bravely got out of the car (in sugar cube town) to ask a group of boys if they'd mind having their picture taken. The boys were VERY cute about the whole thing, mumbling through their poem and sort-of tickling Sophie on the rump with their...ahem...sticks. But POZOR ("beware!"). Just when it all seemed happy-happy-quaint-village-custom, Betsy got a surprise WHACK from an inebriated 50-something passerby. And--I wouldn't tell you this if I was a good husband--she perpetuated the tradition by rewarding the men with a most delightful little shriek! What fun, heh, heh, heh (Anyway, you get the picture...kind of gross; kind of great.).

So that was Easter in a eggshell. Beautiful weather, an excuse to spank your neighbor's wife, gorgeous eggs, and lots of revolution-inducing zameks. Happy Spring!