So I went with two other girls from my program to Rehlovice, a small village of 400 people in Northern Bohemia near Usti nad Labem to study Czech-German relations and artistic endeavors to create better relations. Now, my host told me that there were 400 people in this town (although 800 before the expulsion of the Germans in 1948) but I don't think we ever saw more than about 20. Most of them in the local pub.
The first picture from the previous post was of one of the buildings on the cultural complex. It was a former brewery and farm that has been slowly converted into more livable space. The parts that have had less renovations are often inspiration for the artists who come on various retreats. The whole complex is covered with various pieces of artwork from over the years. Our host was a ceramics artist and so we saw many of her pieces in her studio. Her (much younger) boyfriend was also one of the artists who had constructed pieces. The girls and I got to help finish one of them. He and another artist had created a wooden floor in an old storage building. Actually, two floors. The first was decorated with their conceptions of the events of August 1968 and then covered with another floor to create a kind of time capsule.
While we were at Rehlovice, there was also a group of art students from a school in Moravia. Most of them were shy about speaking English with us, but some were not which was great fun.I had a very long conversation with one boy in the pub about American movies, films, bands and even politics. Granted, I think he knew more about it than I did and some of the programs he knew made me cringe. But no fear, we introduced several of them to one of the finer parts of American culture -- s'mores.
We also spent some time in the main urban center of Northern Bohemia -- Usti nad Labem (Labe = Elba. That took me a while to figure out. I wondered why so many towns were "nad Labem"). I really don't have any pictures from that because our time there was brief. The city is primarily made of cement and very block-like and modern with a handful of random old buildings thrown in. During World War II, Usti was one of the few places that was bombed in the region. We interviewed a woman who runs a cultural organization that tries to bring Czechs and Germans together.After 5 days on the farm, we rejoined the rest of the group in Cesky Krumlov ie how Disney would depict the Czech Republic in Epcot. It's a small city with 16,000 people but the second most visited place after Prague in the Czech Republic. It's UNESCO protected which basically means it's devoid of any mid 1900's cement and block architecture. Also, the city was ignored for long stretches of time. During the wars, the proximity to the Austrian border rather than the German border helped to prevent any conflict from occurring in the city. The second picture from the previous blog is the view from the top of the castle there. I'm sure millions of people have taken that same photo.
While we were there, the city was having a special festival to celebrate people named Vaclav. It translates to the same as "Wenceslas" like the King in the Christmas song in English, but it's a popular name in the Czech Republic. The most popular President after the Czech Republic became it's own nation in 1993 was Vaclav Havel -- I've yet to hear anyone say something negative about him, except that his latest play was not as good as some of his previous works. In celebration, there was a marketplace in the town center which featured traditional Czech treats and crafts.
We went to some cool restaurants as well. The first was a medieval pub in which the waiters were required to wear some medieval garb. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were LARPers and wore those clothes on their free time, but LARPing in the Czech Republic is it's own entry to come some day. The other restaurant we went to was a Roma restaurant.
Roma people are, yet again, an entry unto themselves. I'm still learning about the complex relationship between European nations and the Roma people. They are still known as a transient population, so the fact that there was a Roma restaurant was fairly unique. We also got to listen to a Roma band perform some of their music. Now, I'm not a musicologist, so some of it sounded similar to what I'd heard of Czech music but at the same time there were some distinct differences.
The next day, I went to the regional museum. Now I love museums, but I've been fairly disappointed with the ones I've been to so far in the Czech Republic. I'm spoiled because my main point of reference is the Smithsonian museums which is truly beyond compare in quality. I could live in the Smithsonian and not be bored. However, I was only in the regional museum in Cesky Krumlov for about 10 minutes when I heard something conflicting with the sounds of "Euro-Indians" (this sounded a lot cooler than it actually was. Turns out it wasn't really trying to say that Europe had something comparable to Native Americans. It was about the history of native Americans and then some of them that had come to Europe)
Turns out it was small children dancing. I watched several different performances because it was so interesting. I did realize, however, that to them it was similar in many ways to school plays or dance recitals that students perform in the United States -- the matching outfits and hair, the jacket taken off right before the show and put back on right away, the numerous photos taken by pleased parents.
I really want to find a way to post the video, but it seems like that will be very difficult. I'll keep trying though -- it's precious.
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