So the theme of the last few weeks has been Eastern Europe. My roommates and I took a day trip to Bratislava a couple Saturdays ago because it’s only a 45-minute train ride away. The old part of the city was beautiful, but everything else kind of looked like the projects. One important thing to note whenever you visit Slovakia is to never ever place your feet on the seats. Scary Slovakian police may fine you 100 SKK. The following week I had a German final, but right after the test I left for a ten day tour of Prague, Krakow, and Budapest. My favorite city was Prague, mainly because of the astronomical clock.

The astronomical clock, which may have malfunctioned for the first time in like two hundred years the hour we observed it.

In Krakow (a.k.a. “The City of Magic Power”) I learned to never take for granted securely fastened toilet seats. (Hostels that look like mental institutions are never a good idea.) The city center was much nicer however, and we also had the opportunity to experience the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz, a short drive from Krakow. Suddenly, spending a couple nights in a somewhat shady hostel didn’t seem like such a problem.

During their flight at the end of the war, the Nazis burned many buildings, leaving only charred chimneys of the camp where over one million Jews, Polish political prisoners, and gypsies were killed.

During the tour of Buda and Pest (they’re two separate cities—weird, huh), we visited many Roman ruins and a Communist statue park. Artistic propaganda is amazing.

If I could work in a building such as this, I’d so be a member of the Hungarian Parliament.