Påskeferie
Thursday, April 19, 2007
From what I hear, the traditional Norwegian Easter vacation is a trip into the mountains to do some hardcore cross-country skiing. The point is to spend the whole day being cold and wet, and, for most people, to get really really drunk at night. This is what "good Norwegians" do, I guess. The other Norwegians, the ones who are sick of snow and cold and high-priced alcohol, go south for Easter vacation. I'm not Norwegian, so the closest Norwegian approximation to myself is the "other" kind. Hence, I went south for Easter vacation. To Prague! To visit my beautiful Czech friends from last semester. I traveled there with my friend Katrin, who is German and also speaks Norwegian.
Since we spoke Norwegian the whole time, we told Iva, one of the Czech girls who happens to have a job cleaning the Norwegian ambassador's house, to try to get us some government funding, just to cover, say, wine with dinner or something like that. We decided that once we created a really long compound word to describe us, we were official. Hence, we named our group: Det internasjonale norskkvinnekveldsutvekslingsprogram (The international Norwegian women's night exchange program). The Women's Night part comes from the parties we used to have last semester, which were girls only and involved a lot of cookies and pointless chatter. I, unfortunately, don't have pictures of us together yet. Those are on Katrin's camera. But I'll show you what I've got!
I think it says something significant about me that this is the first thing I bothered to take out my camera for. We went to a cafe that had Julius Meinl coffee. Thus, I had a cup with the boy in the tall red hat on it. In Prague! This is mostly for the delight of my former roomies, who will understand my excitement.
The John Lennon Memorial wall. I thought this was pretty cool, because Iva had been looking for it for a long time, but hadn't managed to find it, so she used us as an excuse to be a tourist in her own hometown. If you've been reading since last summer, you know how great I think it is to be a tourist in your own hometown.
The view from Petřin, an adorable little lookout tower in a park that, according to an older Czech gentleman we passed "smelled like garlic." My Czech friends had a great time translating things that people were saying around us into Norwegian. It's fun to have a secret language!
A little exhibit devoted to Jára Cimrman, the most famous Czech who never lived. Apparently, he was invented by a theater company. I think that's fabulous. The exhibit was full of weird things he never invented, photos he could not be identified in, and items "from his girlhood."
Me on the Charles Bridge!
Really cool clock! With a skeleton guard! The twelve apostles come out on the hour ...
That's all the Prague fun I have for now. Hope you enjoyed!
Since we spoke Norwegian the whole time, we told Iva, one of the Czech girls who happens to have a job cleaning the Norwegian ambassador's house, to try to get us some government funding, just to cover, say, wine with dinner or something like that. We decided that once we created a really long compound word to describe us, we were official. Hence, we named our group: Det internasjonale norskkvinnekveldsutvekslingsprogram (The international Norwegian women's night exchange program). The Women's Night part comes from the parties we used to have last semester, which were girls only and involved a lot of cookies and pointless chatter. I, unfortunately, don't have pictures of us together yet. Those are on Katrin's camera. But I'll show you what I've got!
I think it says something significant about me that this is the first thing I bothered to take out my camera for. We went to a cafe that had Julius Meinl coffee. Thus, I had a cup with the boy in the tall red hat on it. In Prague! This is mostly for the delight of my former roomies, who will understand my excitement.
The John Lennon Memorial wall. I thought this was pretty cool, because Iva had been looking for it for a long time, but hadn't managed to find it, so she used us as an excuse to be a tourist in her own hometown. If you've been reading since last summer, you know how great I think it is to be a tourist in your own hometown.
The view from Petřin, an adorable little lookout tower in a park that, according to an older Czech gentleman we passed "smelled like garlic." My Czech friends had a great time translating things that people were saying around us into Norwegian. It's fun to have a secret language!
A little exhibit devoted to Jára Cimrman, the most famous Czech who never lived. Apparently, he was invented by a theater company. I think that's fabulous. The exhibit was full of weird things he never invented, photos he could not be identified in, and items "from his girlhood."
Me on the Charles Bridge!
Really cool clock! With a skeleton guard! The twelve apostles come out on the hour ...
That's all the Prague fun I have for now. Hope you enjoyed!
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