Melissa: Role of the Traveler

pirate night fun


a healthy lunch of leek salad enjoyed from our hostel nook


a view of the poet's corner


museum meandering


Writing from Cal’s apartment in Prague (what the actual Czech people call Praha). Elisa and I arrived about an hour ago from Olomouc- a small student town about a three hour train ride from Praha. We liked Olomouc. But it was rather boring and low key after Budapest. We went on our first “free” walking tour and saw a couple museums, we made food a couple of nights, indulged in the hostel’s free coffee, managed to turn down both an ice hockey game and a “football” game, and went out to a traditional meal of goulash with bread dumplings and cabbage and potato pancakes with pork and spinach. I think we both needed to recuperate and get some sleep so we didn’t feel too bad that nobody in our hostel was slightly interesting and that everyone’s nightly pastime seemed to consist of reading silently and going to bed by 11. I guess we should have guessed from the fact that the hostel was called “Poet’s Corner” that we weren’t in for a wild time.

Closing thoughts on Budapest: My one regret about our stay there was that we didn’t learn more about the history or the people. Traveling around you are constantly forced to ask yourself why you are traveling to a place. Travelers always want to avoid other travelers when abroad- they somehow feel entitled to the privilege of being the only ones there. I think this stems from the desire to try to have an authentic experience, the goal of witnessing a place and a people untouched by foreigners. But sometimes the most “authentic cities” or the ones that are more untouched by tourism do not hold as enjoyable of times (as Olomouc proved). I wrote in Munich about our experience in our corporate hostel that was flowing with foreigners who hung out at the hostel bar instead of going out into town and trying a local bar. I was critical of this bubble that travelers can easily fall into. But I do think there is such a thing as a perfect balance. I think the best experiences in cities that Elisa and I have had are always the right blend of meeting other travelers, with which we can have the shared experience of having a set of fresh eyes when experiencing the city, and witnessing events or engaging locals in a way that demonstrate what we imagine life to be like within the city. Am I traveling to see what life is like elsewhere? To see what it would be like to live in Place A, B, or C? Or am I traveling to just enjoy myself and constantly navigate what is required for this to happen? As always, I think I just want new perspectives and the diverse set of new experiences that leads to those perspectives. This is something I am obviously still sorting out for myself. But, I digress, this was all just to say that even though we didn’t go to any museums in Budapest or do a guided tour or meet any locals, I had a great time and learned some new things and that is what I think counts.

The “Pirate Night” we had the last night we were there was certainly unrelated to anything Hungarian but I still enjoyed dressing up (how perfect was it that Elisa had two striped t-shirts?) and going to a bar with a newly formed band of pirates after some rum and lots of “arrrr”’s. It was a rude awakening the next morning leaving early to catch our train to Olomouc after going to bed right before sunrise but it was worth it. Olomouc was a great place to recharge for Prague. So, we will head out to explore a bit before dinner and then meet up with some former Stebbinites (Don, Trevor, Jack and possibly Jesse) tonight for what promises to be nothing short of an interesting night.