The Frieberg Sprint
It was only my second weekend in Prague. I had already spent a fair share of my time in the city. You see, Celakovice - the city where I'm studying, is quite rough during the winter. Staying here one hour longer than necessary can be quite painful...at least in the winter (which is probably the case in a lot of towns in Eastern Europe). We're only about 20 kilometers outside of Prague, but that's not as close as you would think.
So we spent Friday chillin at Staropramen Beer Factory, where we got to see the inner-workings of what is said to be the best beer in the world - I guess I wouldn't really know. We followed that visit with our weekly outing to the Cinemas in Prague, which, as a side note, is incredible. Cinema here is a pretty new phenomenon, so most of the big hollywood hits are still in English with Czech subtitles, and the theatres are extremely nice. Thus, we go as often as we can.
Then it was back to bed early, we had an early morning ahead of us. In order to make the full trip to Dresden, go through the temple and come back for the Operah (yes, I'll explain later), we would have to leave on the 4:20 a.m. train into Prague. I can proudly admit to making that train, albeit with a pounding head ache from lack of sleep. Plus, 4:20 feels early in the kind of cold we have here in the siberian desert.
Because were new, and maybe more that we're American, we ended up taking a series of wrong trains on our way. The good news is that it was cheaper, because they were all regional trains and we made it not much slower than we would have on Eurorail. The temple is located in a city named Freiberg, about 45 kilometers outside of Dresden. It was a rad little town. We were thruilled that we actually made it when we got there. We arrived around 11 am, and at that point, we thought we would just be able to see a golden Moroni floating atop the city that would direct us to our destination. No such luck. We walked a couple circles, but we were losing valuable time, so we hailed a cab. Of course, he immediately understood the words "mormon temple". And we were off. Apparently we arrived at a slow time, because we got all the attention in the world from the temple staff - that, or they really were the nicest people I've ever met. We had a couple of hours until the next session, we chilled,chatted and read a little BOM...it was probably the most relaxing moments I've had in weeks.
We were beginning to face an interesting new problem - the departure of our only train back. We had been thinking a full session was in order, but we began to see our math wasn't working how it should have been. But, we thought, if there's anywhere to take a chance like that, it's gotta be the temple. So we went for it. And like clockwork, it all worked out. A cute little couple from Salt Lake, who was due to return home in 2 weeks, told us they could drive us to Dresden, and hopefully catch up to the train we already missed departing from Frieberg. So we went for it.
When a person is running late, and running the risk of having to buy new Eurorail tickets for $100, and this person is a student with no money, this person begins to feel a rapid heartbeat. Bless the lil couple who was driving, but speed was not a familiar movement, and my eyes watched every minute tick off my watch. As we approached Dresden, we new we were cutting it close. After only a couple wrong turns, which is actually remarkable for any American in Europe, we had the Dresden Banhof in site. What seemed to be the last remaining problem was pulling up to it. We came pretty close, and that very moment marked the 3 minute mark to departure.
"This is good!" I yelled, and as the car began to slow, I began to open the rear door in an effort to promote a full 'stop'. I got it, and with a quick - albeit sincere- thanks, Casey and I were off at full speed into the Banhof. We have it everything, which is a lot in church shoes on the icy grounds of Dresden. But we made it...and with a couple minutes to spare...just enough time to grab a brautwurst from the stand around the corner. We had made it.
All of the same hurried feelings mentioned above returned as the 3 hour train neared Prague. We were racing to meet the rest of the class at the Don Giovani Operah - which would have been easy to skip if we hadn't already bought tickets. So when the train reach the final stop, we were flying again. And agian, our church shoes met the icy ground. We ran the streets of Prague, darting from one theatre to the next. We arrived at the theatre just as the curtain was raised. Unfortunately, we missed the last light to get into our seats by just seconds. So we watched the first have hunched in the upper corners of the 5-story, beautifully preserved Operah Hall.
The Operah was awesome. And Don Giovani is a pimp. Finally, we headed to catch the last train back to Celakovice. The whole reminiscing about a day that literally "sprinted" by.
As a side note, the next day (Sunday) we found ourselves sprinting to catch the metro on our way to church. My shoes, already worn down from the previous days activities, had reached their limit. As I rounded the pillar, on my way to the closing metro doors, they gave. On shoe went one way and the other went about 150 degrees the other way. As I began falling, the pain set in immediately. Luckily, few people watching from the metro understand english, because I wasn't very proud of what came out. The injury didn't recede for about 2 weeks, fair punishment for explitives. And now, I can boast a much better from physical stature from a weekend of running in church shoes.
So we spent Friday chillin at Staropramen Beer Factory, where we got to see the inner-workings of what is said to be the best beer in the world - I guess I wouldn't really know. We followed that visit with our weekly outing to the Cinemas in Prague, which, as a side note, is incredible. Cinema here is a pretty new phenomenon, so most of the big hollywood hits are still in English with Czech subtitles, and the theatres are extremely nice. Thus, we go as often as we can.
Then it was back to bed early, we had an early morning ahead of us. In order to make the full trip to Dresden, go through the temple and come back for the Operah (yes, I'll explain later), we would have to leave on the 4:20 a.m. train into Prague. I can proudly admit to making that train, albeit with a pounding head ache from lack of sleep. Plus, 4:20 feels early in the kind of cold we have here in the siberian desert.
Because were new, and maybe more that we're American, we ended up taking a series of wrong trains on our way. The good news is that it was cheaper, because they were all regional trains and we made it not much slower than we would have on Eurorail. The temple is located in a city named Freiberg, about 45 kilometers outside of Dresden. It was a rad little town. We were thruilled that we actually made it when we got there. We arrived around 11 am, and at that point, we thought we would just be able to see a golden Moroni floating atop the city that would direct us to our destination. No such luck. We walked a couple circles, but we were losing valuable time, so we hailed a cab. Of course, he immediately understood the words "mormon temple". And we were off. Apparently we arrived at a slow time, because we got all the attention in the world from the temple staff - that, or they really were the nicest people I've ever met. We had a couple of hours until the next session, we chilled,chatted and read a little BOM...it was probably the most relaxing moments I've had in weeks.
We were beginning to face an interesting new problem - the departure of our only train back. We had been thinking a full session was in order, but we began to see our math wasn't working how it should have been. But, we thought, if there's anywhere to take a chance like that, it's gotta be the temple. So we went for it. And like clockwork, it all worked out. A cute little couple from Salt Lake, who was due to return home in 2 weeks, told us they could drive us to Dresden, and hopefully catch up to the train we already missed departing from Frieberg. So we went for it.
When a person is running late, and running the risk of having to buy new Eurorail tickets for $100, and this person is a student with no money, this person begins to feel a rapid heartbeat. Bless the lil couple who was driving, but speed was not a familiar movement, and my eyes watched every minute tick off my watch. As we approached Dresden, we new we were cutting it close. After only a couple wrong turns, which is actually remarkable for any American in Europe, we had the Dresden Banhof in site. What seemed to be the last remaining problem was pulling up to it. We came pretty close, and that very moment marked the 3 minute mark to departure.
"This is good!" I yelled, and as the car began to slow, I began to open the rear door in an effort to promote a full 'stop'. I got it, and with a quick - albeit sincere- thanks, Casey and I were off at full speed into the Banhof. We have it everything, which is a lot in church shoes on the icy grounds of Dresden. But we made it...and with a couple minutes to spare...just enough time to grab a brautwurst from the stand around the corner. We had made it.
All of the same hurried feelings mentioned above returned as the 3 hour train neared Prague. We were racing to meet the rest of the class at the Don Giovani Operah - which would have been easy to skip if we hadn't already bought tickets. So when the train reach the final stop, we were flying again. And agian, our church shoes met the icy ground. We ran the streets of Prague, darting from one theatre to the next. We arrived at the theatre just as the curtain was raised. Unfortunately, we missed the last light to get into our seats by just seconds. So we watched the first have hunched in the upper corners of the 5-story, beautifully preserved Operah Hall.
The Operah was awesome. And Don Giovani is a pimp. Finally, we headed to catch the last train back to Celakovice. The whole reminiscing about a day that literally "sprinted" by.
As a side note, the next day (Sunday) we found ourselves sprinting to catch the metro on our way to church. My shoes, already worn down from the previous days activities, had reached their limit. As I rounded the pillar, on my way to the closing metro doors, they gave. On shoe went one way and the other went about 150 degrees the other way. As I began falling, the pain set in immediately. Luckily, few people watching from the metro understand english, because I wasn't very proud of what came out. The injury didn't recede for about 2 weeks, fair punishment for explitives. And now, I can boast a much better from physical stature from a weekend of running in church shoes.
posted by gjacob at 10:52 AM
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