At the end of January, the Czech and Slovak Fulbright scholars gathered together for a long weekend in Olomoucs, the historical capital of Moravia (the eastern region of the Czech Republic), for our Mid-Year Conference. It's a beautiful city that fortunately was not tainted by Stalin's ugly Communist architecture and uniformity.
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| Olomoucs - View from Hotel |
We departed Prague on a Friday afternoon, which was actually the first day of my region's spring break! Though I was a bit bummed I had to spend the first weekend of my break attending a conference, I was excited to see my friends, who I hadn't seen since before Christmas.
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| Czech and Slovak Fulbright Scholars |
Our days were filled with presentations, discussions, and talks. These are some pictures of me presenting; I love talking with my hands.
Our nights were filled with fun as we were free after dinner. We checked out the local scene in Olomoucs, visiting various bars and breweries, and chatting with the Fulbright scholars who lived in Slovakia. I'm hoping to visit Bratislava (Slovakia's capital) and the Tetra mountains before I depart for the States this summer.
On Sunday, we geared up for the Super Bowl, which would call for a late night. For my Czech friends, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest American football matches. People usually get together and have parties with lots of food and alcohol. For the most part, the men get really into the game (and some women), but women tend to care more about the commercials (where companies pay millions of dollars for about a thirty second advertisement) and the half-time show, which is performed by famous singers. This year it was performed by Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kickoff was at 6:30PM EST, which meant 12:30AM here in the Czech Republic. We bought snacks and plastic bottles of wine (classy, I know) for real cheap ahead of time.
We borrowed the projector from the hotel and set up shop in a conference room with a big white screen. Unfortunately, the game wasn't so interesting this year, so one by one we slowly called it a night and went to bed. I only made it until about 1:00AM, but my favorite commercial was the Cheerios one. I've conveniently uploaded here in case you need a refresher:
On our last day in Olomoucs, a local history professor gave us a walking tour of the city. Of course, this would be the coldest day we had in the Czech Republic for quite some time (as it has been an abnormally warm year), so we froze our royal nee-nees off. The tour originally started with roughly thirty of us, but ended with maybe five brave souls (myself not included).
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| Olomoucs Walking Tour |
Olomoucs has the tallest plague monument in all of Europe called the Column of the Holy Trinity. Yeah, we're talking the Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, that raged through most of Europe, first appearing around 1350. There are various plague monuments found throughout Europe which are a testimony to good being triumphant over evil (people surviving the Plague). It's quite a dark structure as it was constructed in the Baroque style, but it's a gorgeous monument nonetheless. There's a small chapel in the middle of it.
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| Me & Twee |
We saw the Slovak scholars create "SLOVAKIA" from their bodies and attempted to do the same with "CZECH", but clearly, we were not as coordinated and failed miserably. We excused ourselves by saying we had harder letters to deal with...
One of the aspects I really loved about this city is the mix of old and new architecture and businesses. Here's a picture of a McDonald's at the bottom right of this building in the town square.
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| Olomoucs |
The town had many interesting fountains depicting Greek mythology.
Poseidon spearing a multi-headed seahorse creature.
Just like Prague, Olomoucs has its very own astronomical clock. However, this one was bombed during World War II by the Nazis and later rebuilt by Communists.
It's a one-of-a-kind clock made in Socialist Realist style, where chemists and heroic mothers have replaced saints and religious symbols. At noon, a Proletarian parade of milkmaids, clerks, blacksmiths, medics, and teachers are celebrated as the champions of everyday society.
As with any proper astronomical clock, there's a wheel with 365 saints; one celebrated for each day of the year. This clock is rare in the fact that it has added special days for the birthdays of famous Communists leaders, which are depicted by the red bands on the wheel.
Lenin (leader of the Bolsheviks) was born on the 112th day of the year in 1870, which is displayed by the red band on the bottom left of the picture below.
This is a very intriguing structure found in the courtyard of the University. It could be some kind of astronomical tool...
My last stop on the walking tour was climbing the steps of one of the many cathedrals in the city to get a skyline view of the town square. Even with the clouds it was a stunning view.
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| Skyline View of Old Town Square |
All in all, it was a great weekend and start to my spring break, where more adventures lay ahead!
