Moldova
It may be the first time this has ever been written, but here goes: I am very happy to have made it to Moldova.
Three days spent in Bucharest are two days more than anyone needs in that city. I didn't so much mind the dirtiness or the stray dogs. The roads were what really got to me. They were long masses of low-quality concrete filled with honking cars emitting more fumes in one hour than is recommended for a lifetime. Unfortunately, we were compelled to stick to the main roads as our only means of successfully getting from A to B. In addition to polluted roads, Bucharest offers other unattractions: begging street orphans, bad food and a sprawling identity that is often compared to Los Angeles.
Our stopover in Bucharest was thanks to the need for a visa to enter Moldova, a requirement that will cease for Americans this January. But, alas, it is not yet January 2007, so we had to obtain the papers. The process went as well as could be expected. We showed up to the Moldovan consulate (of course on the side of a busy, polluted road) around 9:10 and waited around for a few minutes before being told to come back at 10. We wasted some time walking around a bit more and getting a disgusting plastic cup of espresso before returning on time only to be told "No." "What do you mean?" "He's not in. Come back." We decided not to follow the guards' advice this time around and instead waited on the sidewalk. Low and behold, we were invited into the consulate about half an hour later. We filled out the paperwork and were given a form to present to the National Bank, where all filing fees are accepted. We hiked to the other part of town and paid the bank without any problems. We couldn't pick up the visas until 3, so we killed some time getting a bad lunch and reading in a delapitated park outside of Parliament House. We got back to the consulate and received our visas with no additional problems.
After three days in Bucharest, one of which was spent hiking around polluted roads on the way to deal with different bureaucracies, I was glad to get on the train to Moldova. After a 14-hour ride, interrupted by the need to change the train wheels from the European to the Soviet style, we arrived safely in Chisinau.
We met up with Vanja, who runs the NGO where we're volunteering, and she guided us on public transport out to the town of Straseni. Straseni is a poor town about 20 kilometers northwest of the capital. It main road is nothing more than a few stray pieces of concrete strewn among trash and rubble. It lacks running water. It does boast a 24-hour supermarket and a reasonably nice internet cafe. Our housing is luxurious, even by American standards. Its a spacious apartment with a beautiful new kitchen, comfortable bedroom and modern bathroom. And it has a coffeemaker for some real drip coffee! We also get three delicious vegetarian meals a day in prepared by the centre's staff and can use the television (with video and DVD player) in the evening.
After spending Saturday exploring the town, Alyssa and I went into Chisinau for a pleasant Sunday. The city is actually very nice, described by one book as the "coziest of Soviet-style cities." Its main road is a tree-lined boulevard with a number of nice shops and outdoor markets along the way. We ate at a nice restaurant a few blocks off the main drag that served, among other things, soy meat (pretty cosmopolitan for a city that most describe as a relic of the Soviet Union). We did stick to the centre, however, and missed out on the many apartment blocks where Moldovans live in squalor.
Today was our first on the job at the centre. Sunrise Centre is a daycare facility for elderly Straseni residents, a place where they can come to do their laundry, get a meal, take a shower and just hang out playing games, watching television or enjoying conversation. Our role at the centre is less than perfectly defined. Previous volunteers and those who are sharing the apartment with us advised us to stake out a project of our own initiative. Today, we painted the fence and will probably continue to work on this for the timebeing.
The Travel Begins
We left Prague this Saturday on our way to Moldova. The trip will take us through Vienna and Bucharest, on trains and planes and buses.
The last few days in Prague went well. Alyssa and I whittled away our days reading and walking around the city. We spent one day on a hike and swim at a lake out in Pruhonice and another on a day trip to Kutna Hura. We also enjoyed the wonderful Prague nightlife. Wednesday was the indie/brit pop night at M1, a lounge in Old Town Square. Thursday was my favorite night in Prague: alternative dancing at Nebe. And Friday was an 80's dance party at Lucerna, a huge club near Wencelas Square. We also managed to spend some time on Saturday with Ray, who we had barely seen during our week with him owing to his intense work schedule. We got lunch at Bohemia Bagel, a great American-style place popular with expats.
We've had a great time in Vienna. When we arrived - nearly two hours late - on Saturday, we were met at the train station by Stephan, who agreed to host us during our stay. He's a 24-year-old IT assistant who has lived on the same floor of the same apartment house in the same district of the same city for his whole life - and he loves Vienna. We dropped off our bags his small and dirty apartment in the 10th district, an area many Viennese consider the ghetto because of the large Turkish and Middle Eastern population. Alyssa and I think its a great area, though, with lots of people and a bustling promenade that streteches for blocks and blocks. After throwing down our bags, Stephan led the way to a great restaurant in the city centre where they specialize in fillings wrapped in pancakes. We then met up with two other
CouchSurfing hosts and three guests at a pub in the Bermuda Triangle bar district and finished the evening off at an outdoor sand bar on the Danube River.
The next day, Stephan took Alyssa and I back to Stephanplatz for a tour of the centre. We saw the churches, the university, city hall, Imperial Palace and other sites that attract tourists before settling at a jet ski competition on the Danube. We got a call from other couchsurfing guests Stephan hosted this week and met up with them. Kameron and Caroline are a married couple transitioning to LA after six years in Tuson, where he just finished up his doctorate in optics. The recently enlarged group continued the city tour and stopped by a cafe for some espresso. We headed back for showers and then went out to dinner and a club for the evening.
Alyssa and I were left to ourselves on Monday as Stephan went to work and Kameron and Caroline had their own agenda. We spent our free time at the laundry mat and an internet cafe. In the evening, we went to dine at Susi's, a girl Alyssa hooked up with on couchsurfers. Susi's a 22-year-old Austrian who has lived in Vienna for the past four years during her studies. We were joined by her friend Max, a 23-year-old who just finished his business degree and plans to attend graduate school in the fall. It was a wonderful evening, with great food and even better conversation ranging from music to Turkish ascension to the EU (the big topic of the night). After the traditional Austrian dinner, we met up with some of their friends for drinks. Unfortunately, it was such a good time that Alyssa and I missed the last metro train back to Stephan's and ended up waiting for the night bus, an ordeal that lasted nearly two hours.
Vienna has been good to us. Tonight, we plan to go out to dinner with Stephan and then meet up with Susi and Max for some drinks. Then tomorrow we'll catch our plane out of Bratislava and be on our way to Bucharest, leaving behind the cosmopolitan West as we know it.
Post Script
Alyssa has her own blog. Owing to the fact that I spend my time in internet cafes catching up with the newspapers, Alyssa's is far more extensive. Check it out at
Euro Alyssa.
Raylyssa
Alyssa arrived last Saturday. I checked out of the hostel and, with her, went to Ray's, where we have been staying for the past few days and will continue to hang out there until we leave for Vienna.
Ray is an astonishingly nice and generous guy. Alyssa dug him up from
Couchsurfing, a site that hooks travllers up with people willing to let them crash on their couches. Not only did Ray offer to meet Alyssa at the airport, but he hung around with me for an extra three hours while we waited for her late arrival. He took us to his great flat in Bubenec via cab (which he paid for) and set us up with a comfy sofa bed in the living room. Although he has been busy with work during weekdays and must be exhausted by the time he gets home, he's always found time to chat with us in the late evenings. We plan to go out Friday night, when he'll finally have some free time.
Now that Alyssa's here, I realize that I know Prague pretty well. I am able to show her around the sights, navigate the public transport and always find things to do. On Saturday, after walking around Ray's neighborhood a bit, the three of us went out to a nice restuarant for dinner, then down to Old Town Square for ice cream and a walk across the Charles Bridge. Sunday was spent showing Alyssa some more of Prague and then Ray showed us his DVD of last year's
EuroVision contest. On Monday, Alyssa and I went back to Old Town Square to watch the US-Czech World Cup match and then out to dinner. Yesterday, we made a day trip to Kutna Hura, a Czech village about an hour train ride outside of Prague, to see a famous Church of Bones and walk around the village. When we got back to Prague, we went down to Smichov to see X-Men III (which was bad). Today, we plan to go out to Pruhonice and hike back to the city. And tonight I'll finally introduce Alyssa to some great Prague nightlife and we'll go to the Indie night at M1.
Prague Nights
Moved back to the city and am having a good time. Pruhonice is a lovely village, but nearly a week of sleeping in darkness and silence was getting a bit much to deal with.
I've been spending my time doing pretty much the same things I'd be doing at home. During the day, I dish out about 3USD for 2 hours on the internet so that I can read
The Times and
The Sun and other local papers like
City Paper. Later on in the afternoons, I get myself a cappuccinno and relax with a book in one of Prague's many beautiful parks. I also run errands and take walks.
My nights have been getting better. Three days ago, I went to the movies and saw
Lemra líná. In the second scene, you see the main character riding in his car. When the camera pans out, you've got a great view of Federal Hill and the downtown Baltimore skyline in the background. I stood up shouted "That there is a great city!" but my fellow movie goers just started babbling incoherently and throwing stuff at me.
Then two days ago, waiting for a
Daily Show clip to load in the internet cafe, some great music came over the loudspeaker. It struck me that I hadn't heard any good music since I've been here, so I set out to find it. That night, I made the trek to a club purported to have the best Brit Pop/Indie night in all of Prague only to find it was closed. Thankfully, I caught wind of another place that made last night one of my best since moving here. With four other people from the hostel, I went to Nebe. And yes, hipsters live in Prague. Lots of them. And they go to Nebe on Thursdays. I drank and danced until after 3 in the morning and had a wonderful time. Not only did I find the best music I've heard in weeks, but one of the DJ's recommended a couple of other nights around the city for me to check out.
Alyssa comes tomorrow.
An End to Pruhonice
Tonight will be my last in Pruhonice. And not a moment too soon. Don't get me wrong, I like staying in the village. It is quiet, green and pleasant. I have been enjoying the 12 kilometer walks in the morning to the tram stop that takes me into Prague. But my welcome there is running out.
When I first e-mailed Jana desperately seeking a place to stay, I told her I only needed lodgings until June 5. My second day there, I informed her that I couldn't arrange to stay in the hostel until June 7. She wasn't elated, but said it would be alright. As time wears on, however, so does her patience with my presence. This morning, she offered to help me take my bags to the bus and was disappointed when I reminded her I had one night left. "Are you sure?" She emphasized I needed to leave by tomorrow because she and Vladimir are going out of town. She also mentioned she felt "limited" with me there because she needed to be home to let me in. Besides her comments, the food has been the biggest signal that my welcome is wearing thin. The first few nights, I enjoyed vegetarian feasts. Lately, though, I have been given cheese and bread while they enjoy a meat-based dish. And this morning, she didn't even offer breakfast. Not that I expect someone who generously opened her door to feed me, but the difference from previous days sent a clear message.
The awkwardness of this aside, staying with Jana and Vladimir has been wonderful. As mentioned in a previous post, fresh drip coffee each morning! And I take a beautiful walk through the woods and some villages to Prague each morning. Spend my days in the city, my nights in the countryside. Working with Vladimir didn't turn out as hoped. Although I gave him a hand a few times, we truly cannot communicate at all, so it seemed as though I was more of a burden than a help.
Living in Prague has become bearable. I've been hanging around a few areas of the city, mostly Andel, and gotten to know them pretty well. So I'm finally comfortable here. I spend my days taking walks, reading the papers and surfing the web. And I finally have time to read! Throughout college, I always complained that I could never read for pleasure because all of it was devoted to school. But now I can dive into some great stuff. So far, I've read Chuck Palahniuk's
Choke and Siba Shakib's
Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep. I soothed my homesickness with Roberto Unger and Cornell West's
The Future of American Progressivism and Alice Walker's
The Color Purple. Then I realized I should be reading Bohemian literature. I just finished
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting from Milan Kundera and am moving onto Kafka's
Castle.
Even though I am comfortable with the city and having more of a pleasant time, I still miss Baltimore terribly. I read the local papers and continue to blog, but I still feel a little out of the politics. So much is happening with the races and the electricity rate hikes and whatnot, and here I am in Central Europe, just watching it and blogging a little. Can't wait to get home and get back right into the middle of everything. For now, though, I'll just focus on moving back to Prague for the next two weeks.
Better Mood and Better Coffee
Alright, I was a little pessimistic in that last post. In my defense, I was tired and bored. And if I can't be honest about how I'm feeling in my travel log, what's the point?
I am doing much better today. After I got back to Jana and Vladimir's last night, we had a wonderful dinner of pasta with a homemade pesto sauce. They have been feeding me well since I arrived. I feel kind of bad because they have been eating vegetarian meals, which is very strange for them. But I can't complain because the food is delicious and I never go hungry.
The Czech parliamentary elections concluded yesterday and, although I couldn't understand 99% of what was being said, I enjoyed watching the news. Elections get me pumped up, even if I have nothing to do with it. The center-right Democrat party won the most seats and will join a coalition with the Catholics and the Greens, leaving the Socialists and Communists in the opposition. Vladimir was quite happy and kept saying "I from right."
After dinner and the news, Vladimir and I watched
The Mummy. Unlike most of the American films they have in the CR, this one was actually dubbed into Czech. But it was pretty simple and contained alot of action, so I enjoyed myself.
The best part of staying with Jana and Vladimir is the coffee. There is no question that staying with them has given me a new experience of living in a small European village and will end up saving me over $100USD, but those benefits pale in comparison to the coffee. Real, drip coffee. Mmmm. Throughout Prague (and Vienna, too), it is nearly impossible to find drip coffee. The Europeans just don't like it. They have Americano, which is a shot of espresso mixed with water, but its just not the same. Now I can look forward to a great mug of drip coffee for the next 3 days.
Speaking of coffee, I miss American coffeehouses. More on this at
The League: Reassembled.
Back in Czech Republic
I returned to the Czech Republic from Vienna. My last day in Vienna was as good as the first two. In the morning, I went to a cafe and read the newspaper. Then Debbie and I walked around in the afternoon. I didn't go out with the Aussie and the Austrians because I had told them I was leaving town earlier that day (didn't feel like spending more time with them). But Debbie and I went to the same bar district and found a nice pub. We went with two of the people from my room in the hostel, a guy and a girl from Boston.
The next day was one of waiting. I got up and hauled my massive luggage to the train station, which involved a long walk and an uncomfortable tram ride. I waited around for the train, then I waited on the train for it to arrive in Prague. Once in the city, I waited for the metro, then waited for it to get to my stop. Then I waited another few hours for Jana to pick me up. There was about an hour of excitement when my train caught on fire. People started looking a bit worried as smoke filled the car about an hour and a half out of Vienna. With no announcement from the conductor or staff, the train came to a stop and we all just jumped out of it. I never found out exactly what happened, but the cloud of smoke and employees running by gripping fire extinguishers indicates that there was definitely a fire. We had to wait for another train to pick us up and so arrived in Prague about an hour late.
I am now staying with Jana in her village Pruhonice, a little town just outside of Prague. Jana lives with someone who is cousins with my cousin's husband's aunt, so it only makes sense that I should stay with her! Her village is absolutely lovely. Small stone houses, a pretty creek, a tiny town square with some restaurants. I'm partial to cities, but I'm glad to be living out of Prague for a week. I spent my first full day there hiking in the woods around her village, eating lunch at a little pub in a neighboring town and reading in the town square. I also made my way across the highway only to find what could only be described as American-style suburban consumerism. Huge big box stores and two malls dot the Czech countryside. I was at such a loss for things to do that I spent about two hours wandering around the stores.
Today I took the bus into Prague. It is about a 15 minute ride to the outskirts of Prague and then about 20 minutes to the centrum via metro. I just killed time: went to an internet cafe, made reservations at the hostel, drank some coffee and read, walked around, etc. I will probably do the same thing tomorrow, though Monday I have building the chimney to look forward to.
Killing time pretty much characterizes the trip. Sometimes its the immediate waitingfor the train or the next meal; other times its waiting for the upcoming leg of the trip or for Alyssa to arrive. And, overall, I am just waiting to come back home. Yes, it is a great experience. When I step back, I realize how amazing it is to be staying in a little Czech town, wandering around through the woods and the city. But I mostly just think about how great life is back home, how I can't wait to go to one of my favorite coffeehouses or to the community theatre I love so much, how excited I am to find and start a new job and just get on with my life. It makes me question how appreciative I am of things: on the one hand, how unappreciative must one be to not love every minute of living in Europe? on the other, it is simply because I am so very appreciative that I miss the wonderfully dull aspects of everyday life.
