The Tears Begin

 It was a concept I truly couldn’t wrap my mind around.  Europeans didn’t shower, they bathed.  So, what was I supposed to do for a full two weeks?  Sit in my own dirt while I bathed?  I didn’t like baths as a kid and I was certain that I wouldn’t like them as a seventeen-year-old.  Here I was, sitting on the  bathroom floor of a five-star hotel in the beautiful city of Prague.  It was the second day of our journey and I’ll admit  I was being a drama queen, but in my defense, the jet lag was hitting me hard.

 Once I was able to conquer the bathtub, I also had to conquer the fact that I wouldn’t be eating pancakes and waffles for breakfast.  Instead, we were served some delicious meat.  However, this time it wasn’t duck which was a plus.  Europeans, in fact, are very big on deli meat for breakfast with cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes on toast.  Before I could even  enjoy breakfast, our bus driver George had arrived and the second day of our journey had begun.

 Our first stop took us to Terezin, which was a concentration camp in Prague. This was the first camp on our journey.  Martina kindly reminded us that due to the fact that the Red Cross visited often to inspect, the camp was tidied up and wasn't nearly comparable to camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka, which we would see later on our trip. The famous sign, “Arbeit Macht Frei”, in simpler terms, “works set you free” hung over the camp entrance.  The thing was that I had seen that sign in so many history textbooks, but now I was seeing it in person.  It was an eery feeling.  While walking through the camp, a sense of somberness and gloom pervades.  My mind was pondering so many questions.  How could people live like this?  What was it like for them?  My classmates and I were pretty silent; we could only observe and listen to our tour guide.  There were no words to speak.

 In the afternoon, we traveled to a little town called Lidice.  Hitler ordered that the town be completely destroyed along with everyone in it.  He believed that someone in this town had assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking Nazi official.  The reality was that no one in that town was responsible for his murder.  Yet, the women and children were shipped off to concentration camps and the men were killed by firing squad.  The town was then burned to the ground. The message that the Nazis conveyed was loud and clear, no matter what religion or ethnicity  you are, we will take you down.  The memorial that is there today is a large, absolutely beautiful park, with vast  sculptures and some ruins from the original churches and houses that once stood.  The most astounding part was that while we were walking through the park, people were riding bikes and one couple was having a little picnic.  These people were going through life like nothing ever happened there, as if  hundreds of innocent men, women and children didn’t lose their lives there. As we finished up our tour, we ended up in front of the Eighty Two Children sculpture. The sculpture is dedicated to not only the children lost in Lidice but also all that were lost in World War II. Teddy bears, as well as presents, lay in front of the children and for the first time in the whole trip tears started to form.

 The  ride was silent back to the hotel.  Many sniffles filled the bus.  What I kept thinking was, "For what purpose would anyone want to kill millions and millions of innocent people"?  Those children had so much to live for in the town of Lidice.  Our tour guide Martina was right, this journey we were on was one heck of an emotional experience and sometimes truly hard to comprehend. 




Photos Taken that day:






These Photos were taken by my friend Hannah D'Amico

Prague You've Stolen My Heart

My body felt like jello, yet here I was again, lugging my monstrous suitcase through yet another airport.  For the first time in my life, the language being spoken around me sounded like jibberish.  The posters on the walls were occupying  my eyes. One just happened to be a large pitcher of beer.  The ironic part was that my uncle, the liquor salesmen from New Jersey, mentioned to me right  before I left for my journey that the beer in Prague was the greatest beer around.  Although the drinking age was eighteen, the beer didn’t look appetizing.  However, the only thing appetizing to me at that moment in time would have been a bed with a few fluffy pillows.  My thoughts were suddenly interrupted, by a thick accent and a cheerful voice. There she was in front a large Mercedes bus, waving to us.  “Ahoja, Ahoja," she kept saying. The greatest part was that none of us knew who the woman was or what she was saying, we just wanted to sleep.

Martina, I later found out, would be our tour guide while we ventured throughout the Czech Republic for a week and “Ahoja”, meant hello.  Our first stop would be the hotel.  When I heard this news, I couldn’t have been more ecstatic,  I could finally ditch my monstrous suitcase and take a much-needed nap.  As the bus ventured through the Czech countryside, Martina decided to introduce herself.  It's safe to say that about fifty percent of my classmates were asleep as she talked, but I was ecstatic to be in a new country and see all the new views.

In the beginning, I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t a fan of Martina.  She talked entirely too much, but yet again she was a tour guide.  Her piercing voice rang through the speakers on the bus, “ Ahoja, welcome to the beautiful land of the Czech Republic.  As we make our way to downtown Prague and the city square, I would just like to take the time to say that the journey you are embarking on is one that many will never experience.  The Holocaust is a subject that many tend to stray away from and avoid, but yet we must realize that it happened and it could happen again. Throughout the next two emotional weeks, we will come to many beautiful and heartbreaking places.  The second week you will make memories with your Polish host that will last a lifetime.  But yet you must remember that the things we encounter may be hard to comprehend, but I promise that this journey will indeed be life changing. If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask, but for now please enjoy the views of my beautiful country”.

The bus traveled throughout the countryside and then boom, we were riding over a bridge entering the city. The views were breathtaking and the whole city could be seen from this bridge.  Right away it became evident that no two buildings were the same.  There were so many rich colors, from yellows to pinks to whites to blues.  The buildings were all extraordinary crafted and the castle looked like it came right out of the movie "Cinderella". There was something just magnificent about this place and I couldn’t wait to explore it.

Our first stop was lunch and at that moment in time I could have eaten for a family of four.  My first meal out of the country was duck… Yes, the kind you see in children's books, the kind that swim in ponds.  There the dead animal was, sitting right in front of me with a side of potatoes. That moment I realized one thing was for certain; that I was going to go back to the United States a few pounds lighter.

After lunch our educational journey began.  We came to Europe to study the Holocaust as well as dive into European culture by staying with a Polish student and their family.  So there we were in the most beautiful synagogue I’d ever seen in my life.  They told us not to take pictures, but that was nearly impossible due to the beauty.  I was able to snap a few.  Next, our journey took us The Old Jewish Cemetery, which contains 20,000 tombstones. The part that intrigued me the most was the location, which happened to be in the center of town.That afternoon we were able to tour the extraordinary city of Prague.  Then for dinner we had another lovely animal, salmon. If it wasn’t for the bread at lunch and dinner, I would have lost about ten pounds that day.

By the time we were done exploring the nightlife of Prague, I felt like a zombie. I was ready for a nice hot shower, but I quickly realized that I wouldn’t be showering for  two weeks. Instead, I would be taking a bath.  I was a five-year-old once again! 

Some photos from this part of my trip, taken by myself and my friend Hannah D'Amico

Soaring to the Czech Republic

It all started when I lugged my fifty pound suitcase up three flights of steps to the third floor of my high school.  I placed my suitcase down next to twenty other suitcases belonging to my classmates. They would embark on this journey with me.  Ten hours from now, we’d be on a plane flying over a portion of the majestic Atlantic Ocean.  The catch was that we had to spend eight hours in school and then venture to Newark Airport on a lovely yellow school bus.  That day I memorized the face of the big fat black and white clocks that hung on the wall in every single one of my classrooms. Then the final bell rang and we were off in the yellow school bus to Newark Airport.  I couldn’t be more ecstatic, but all I kept thinking about was the fact that I had puked on an airplane every single time that I had flown. Something kept telling me that this time wasn’t going to be any different.

  That day, I was certain that my biceps got bigger from hauling my suitcase that was stuffed with clothing.  As the sliding doors opened to the airport, the four TV’s all blared  "Breaking News: Germanwings plane crashes in the Swiss Alps".  Not only was I worried about throwing up on the plane, now I kept thinking, "What happens if the plane goes down?"  But what were the odds of two planes crashing on the same day?  Very slim, I kept reassuring myself.  To avoid my thoughts, I turned to food, as I usually do and devoured a chicken cesar wrap for my last supper. I was savoring all the good greasy American food that I would miss out on for two weeks.

  My pink motion sickness bands were around my wrists and I was ready for take off.  We were riding on a double-decker plane and there were beds on the second floor. I would have given my whole summer paycheck just to upgrade to one of those beds. However, it was too late and the engines roared as we soared off over New York City and the vast Atlantic Ocean.

   That night on the plane I slept for approximately zero minutes. I watched a few episodes of "Friends" as well as the movie "Gone Girl". For dinner I had penne vodka with a garden salad and tiramisu for dessert.  Truthfully, the food on the plane was pretty impressive.  I was prepared for the food that astronauts eat.  The type that is all dried up and tastes like cardboard.  For a few hours I stared at the screen watching the digital plane on the map get closer and closer to the Czech Republic.  As we got closer to the yellow star on the digital map, it was time for breakfast.  Once again, the food was better than I expected.  I had a blueberry muffin, yogurt and some fruit.  Then, the wheels hit the ground and eventually the plane door opened.  The sun from the Czech Republic crept in and our journey had begun.

      

                                       Some Trip Photos:  The first photo is the view at night from the airplane when the plane was above New York City.

My friend Hannah D'Amico took these next two photos. In the photo above, my friend Lizze is all the way to the far right.  I happen to be in the center with the purple backpack, and my friend Kalysta is all the way to the left. The flight took about a total of nine hours. We had left the United States at about 10 pm and we had arrived at 9 am Czech time. None of us had slept on the plane, we literally hit the ground running. Below is the first thing we saw, as we stepped outside the doors of the Czech Airport.