2013 Central Europe Trip- Day 5, Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - A day's tour of Vienna and drive to Prague

Today, we are to drive to Vienna, Austria. I woke up to find Mrs. Poljanec reading in the kitchen. We started to talk and I gave her a few insights on what I was doing and what I intend to do with my life, professionally. She advised me that it was best to be financially independent as a woman without having to rely too much on others for support. She told me she was happy with her life but she knew how challenging it can get to be a stay at home wife and mother. I concurred with her but also reminded her that being a housewife could potentially be the toughest job in the world and she was doing an excellent job taking such good care of her family. She then wanted to learn how to make tea the Indian way so I decided to demonstrate for her. Curiously enough, the Hindi word for tea, “chai” is pronounced exactly the same as Slovenian “čaj”, which suggests that the two languages have the same roots, namely Sanskrit. For some reason, the milk powder/creamer was not complementary to the Assam tea leaves and the tea did not turn out as good as it should. After Andrej woke up, we did some last minute packing and were ready to leave Ljubljana for our vacation. Andrej’s Mom asked me if she could take a few pictures of me so she could show it to her parents who apparently had appreciation for India, I humbly obliged. I felt sad saying goodbye to her as I had come to grow very fond of her in just four days. Andrej obviously failed to understand why I was feeling that way as he is more or less devoid of emotions and claims to never miss anything or anyone. I thought it unimaginable for a person to be so lacking in sentiment. To me, it was a curious case of contradiction because he does appear to be passionate about certain things such as Math and pole vault but seems nonplussed when it comes to expressing himself or treading on the finer fibers of human emotions.

After loading our bags in the car, we waved goodbye to Mrs. Poljanec and made our journey towards Vienna. One of my biggest apprehensions was motion sickness. Taking into account the amount of driving we were going to do throughout the trip, I must admit I became a bit disheartened fearing I may fall sick in the car and cause undue inconvenience to Andrej. Thankfully, the roads and highways in Europe are in excellent condition, no speed bumps and no pot holes. Such well-maintained roads brought back memories of one of the longest road trips some friends and I took from Iowa to California via Las Vegas and Arizona and how I did not feel an inkling of queasiness despite my doubts of falling sick on the way. Besides the air is free of pollution and dirt, that makes a lot of difference! Also, I quickly got to learn what an experienced driver Andrej is; I never felt uneasiness throughout the trip. We stopped for gas at the Slovenian-Austrian border. The man at the gas station had a very different accent which I detected despite my zero knowledge of the Slovenian language. Such a curious thing, only two million Slovenes and each city has a language of their own due to heavy accents. The journey took about four hours with the distance between Ljubljana and Vienna being 400 KM.

We got stranded in a long traffic jam as we entered Austria. The roads were under construction or so it seemed therefore my first impression of Austria was not a very positive one. When we arrived at the city, we first went to check out Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace. We did not go into the cultural monument but toured its surroundings. It was a bright and sunny day and the place was full of tourists. The garden was not very impressive for a place that appeared to be a popular tourist attraction. We walked a bit ahead toward an uphill location, got to see a panoramic view of the city of Vienna, clicked some photos and headed towards the Schönbrunn Zoo. The Zoo is touted as the world’s oldest and houses some fascinating animals such as hippos, panda, tiger, jaguar and giraffe among many others. We also spotted an ant-eater which Andrej thought resembled a vacuum cleaner! That comparison was one of the most unusual but funniest thing I had ever heard. The last famous zoo I went to was at the Bronx in New York. The differences between Bronx and Schönbrunn were that the animals here barely had tall protective cages around their territory and seemed unassumingly at home, unconcerned with the hoards of children and adult visitors; and this zoo was much more compact in size but more crowded. The most memorable sight for me was a panda looking very much like a stuffed toy and chewing away on bamboo leaves. There were also penguins, Himalayan tahr and monkeys. After the tour, I told Andrej it was hard for me to decide which one of them were more adorable—the cute animals at the park or him. After Schönbrunn, it was time to look around the city center. Vienna was extremely clean and I soon forgot about the relatively bad roads and traffic jam that greeted us earlier as we entered into the Austrian territory. I picked up some souvenirs, walked around a bit more in the city center and the magnificent cathedral, ate our lunch in a fine Viennese McDonald’s, picked up Mozart Kugeln chocolates for my Dad and headed back to the car to drive to Prague.

The journey to Prague took another 4 hours. I felt sleepy every now and then in the car but tried my best to not doze off so I could give company to Andrej. Soon after we entered into Czech Republic, I could see billboards plastered with pictures of semi-naked females and come-hither poses. Andrej informed me that prostitution was legal here and therefore the country had regular visits from men from the neighboring countries. I wondered to myself how he knew so much about these things unless he also frequented these sleazy places as a customer at some point! He told me it’s famous for it in Europe just the way Bangkok is on a larger scale. It took us quite a while to get to Prague but as we got closer and closer to the city, I became more and more overwhelmed with excitement. All I could think to myself was that I would soon be in the city of Franz Kafka and Milan Kundera! We made it to our hotel and were glad to know that the city center in the old town was a few blocks away. We checked into our room that looked cozy and warm. Without further wasting time, we got ready and went downtown. We crossed over a bridge and from a distance the castle and Charles Bridge over the Vltava River were visible. However the lights were not lit so our cameras could not capture a decent shot of the view. We walked through the streets and the place at first seemed quiet and empty. Soon, we were greeted with many revelers and tourists in the wake of the night. Andrej wanted to take me to a beer café to sample some of Prague’s finest brew. Since he always emphasized on how amazing Czech beers were and being a beer lover myself, I was pumped up by the idea. We walked a few more blocks as Andrej had been to the place just once before and had a slight problem recalling the correct direction to the café. He managed to locate the place without taking any wrong turns and soon we were enjoying some delicious sausages and sampling beers. There were so many brews to choose from that I almost went mad from indecisiveness. Finally, we settled for tasting of six different Czech beers. The menu for one of the dark lager read, “dark as sin and tempting as all the good sins out there…” I could tell they were certified good beers but being so used to drinking lighter ones such as Belgian whites and “crappy” American light beers, I had trouble finishing them all. The waiter, Jorge, was extremely friendly and energetic and spoke to us about his intentions to go to America like us, make some money and open a bar such as the one he worked for here in Prague. He became extremely chummy after a while and asked Andrej candidly whether he had a sausage like the humongous ones that were on our plates! We burst out into a thunderous laughter!

We came back to our hotel after a wonderful first evening in Prague. I felt happier than I had ever been in years and looked forward to more awesome times with Andrej in this stunningly beautiful city.

2013 Central Europe Trip- Day 6, Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - Prague Castle Complex-Charles Bridge-Classical Concert

I woke up feeling energized after a good night’s sleep. Andrej was still sleeping like a baby. I glanced at him and couldn't help but notice how good he looked even in his sleep. I smiled to myself. I thought it would be wise to use the bathroom and get ready for the day before he woke up as I sometimes can take a while to get ready but I decided to stay in bed and lay next to him till he awoke. It felt a little strange to be sharing bed with another person but also comforting to be waking up next to him. The last time we slept on the same bed was in the summer of 2007. We were strangers then, more or less. But this time, I didn’t look at him that way. I saw him as someone I had known my whole life but also someone I had still much to learn about. I thought it would be best to leave aside perplexing thoughts and simply enjoy the moment such as this. When he woke up, we got ready for breakfast and went down to the restaurant. The place was small but the décor was charming with star-shaped yellow lamps affixed on the walls. I am usually a big eater at breakfast time which also happens to be my favorite meal of the day. I wanted to try out everything that was laid out on the table for us by the hotel staff. I had my plate full of salami, egg, fruits, croissant, butter, marmalade and yogurt with a cup of coffee and Andrej only ate a piece of bread! This guy never ceases to amaze me because one would expect a professional athlete to be mindful of what they eat and perhaps maybe consume more but I noticed that he hardly cares and has a negligible appetite.

We rested for a short while in our hotel room before heading out to explore all that Prague had to offer. I felt like Andrej and I were in consonant with our excitement about Prague. He had been here before and told me about how much he likes the city. This was comforting for me because I didn’t want to stay, or, be at a place with him that he didn’t like or feel comfortable in. By the time we headed out of the hotel, it was lunch time and we agreed to savor some Czech lunch at a typically local restaurant that tourists would normally not frequent. The place was under a cave-like basement and I felt like we were walking into a catacomb! It did look pretty good nonetheless. We sat across two women and I noticed one of them could not lay her eyes off of us. She either found us beautiful or repulsive I thought and couldn’t care less. Andrej ordered for some beef goulash and I went for an eggplant meal with mozzarella balls. And we drank some Ferdinand beer. I tried the goulash and thought it tasted quite similar to one of the beef stews we prepare at home in Manipur. After lunch, I wanted to check out some souvenirs at a grocery shop. The Asian lady shopkeeper welcomed us with the brightest smile. I asked her for some chocolates but she did not understand my English, so I thought I’d try French and said “chocolat” and she got it. I asked her for some Czech products but she handed me a packet of Milka. Andrej insisted that the bar was Swiss and far from being a Czech produce, the lady got extremely annoyed at him and shot back, “100% Czech!” Before pissing her off further we bought the good and left.

After this, we walked towards Prague Castle. On the way up to the Castle, Andrej spotted a cute little street pastry shop and couldn't hold himself back from eating a trdelnik being the sweet-tooth boy! I could literally smell the fresh baked goodies from the shop and more and more people began to form a line outside the tiny shop to get a taste of the wondrous smelling pastries. We reached the Castle but did not go inside and took some pictures of the palace. After walking around for some time we sat down at a café for some ice cream. The café was very small but the terrace offered us a beautiful view of the city with each and every house flaunting red roofs uniformly. An elegant middle-aged couple with American accents asked us to take pictures of them with the view of the city in the background. Before they left, they offered to take a picture of Andrej and me. I was so touched by their gesture because life has taught me that such nice and considerate strangers like these two are rare and hard to come by. After the castle, we went to check out St. Vitus Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague and located within the Prague Castle complex. I was as usual awestruck by the grandiose architecture and interiors of the cathedral. I felt awfully happy to witness the first ever gothic architecture in my life. After having soaked in the beauty of the cathedral, Andrej and I decided to go to Charles Bridge. We sat down for some beers at a restaurant overlooking the Vltava River and the Bridge. It was such a bright and beautiful day! I also talked with Dad and Mom for the first time since arriving in Europe. Andrej was very thoughtful for recharging Skype on his phone so I could call my parents. I told them what an incredible time I was having and that they needn’t worry about my safety or whereabouts at all, and that I was in safe hands. I remember trying to speak softly so Andrej wouldn’t hear the conversation which was in my mother-tongue, the Thadou-Kuki dialect but being the attentive and curious bloke, he apparently heard everything even if he didn’t understand it.

We then walked around the narrow lanes of the city. We visited the Kafka museum store and checked out the souvenirs that were on sale. I picked up a mug specifically created for those that think and live by literature. After our visit to the Kafka store, we were enticed by a couple of guys selling tickets for a classical concert. One of the guys asked us where we came from. After telling him I’m Indian, he tried to impress me with the little Hindi words he knew and said he would give us both discounted rates for the tickets in exchange for some local Indian rupees. Andrej and I were tempted by the offer and decided to go check out the concert. The program was held inside of what I thought was music hall. Andrej later corrected me that the venue was actually a church. I felt embarrassed realizing I may have said and done things unbefitting for a sacred place like this. The concert lasted for about an hour from 6-7 PM and the musicians, four violinists and an organist played pieces from Vivaldi. It was truly a heart-warming, or should I say a sensual experience, although I became a bit drowsy in between maybe because the music was so soothing to the senses. Andrej later told me he too felt a bit sleepy in between. So I didn’t feel ashamed of my sluggish behavior while attending a lovely classical concert. There was so much more to do in downtown Prague but we were getting a little tired from all the walking and sightseeing so we headed back to our hotel. The city looked even more beautiful at night as we walked back and the River Vltava looked all dreamy with reflections of the city lights on its surface. Charles Bridge was not lit up even on our second night in Prague so Andrej was a bit disappointed with that.

It was getting dark and we deliberated whether to go clubbing in the night or stay in our hotel and rest. I was really looking forward to going out and partying the night away with Andrej as we had never gone clubbing before together. We decided to stay in but only on one condition—that he would have to go drink beer with me at the nearby bar or I’d go there by myself. He said he wouldn't let me go alone so he agreed to go. I was grateful that he eventually caved in to my demands, keeping in mind how stubborn of a boy he can be. We had Czech Budweiser known as “Budvar.” I was informed by Andrej that the Czechs are the original makers of what Americans popularly call Budweiser, which also happens to be one of my favorite beers regardless of the amount of flak it receives from people that consider it as a bad beer. Although at first I was a bit disappointed from not clubbing in Prague, after the little bar outing, my evening was made and I was thankful to Andrej for being understanding and cooperative. I went to bed recollecting the amount of fun I had in Prague and wished we could have stayed in the city for at least a week more!