Ciao Prague, Ahoj Paris!

Is it poetic that I am writing this final post from Prague’s airport or is it pitiful?

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity emotions for myself and my friends. We celebrated our final night in Prague approximately three times. There was a mix of sadness, for the obvious reasons, excitement about returning home, and probably a good dose of regret: regret at not visiting certain sites, missing the opportunity to travel to a certain country or city, or for a meal that will have to wait until ones next time in Berlin or Prague.  (But perhaps not only the undone things, but even the nights remembered, or those nights whose events cannot be recalled.)  I would imagine there has been a fair amount of self-reflection and even self-doubt: in a program as small as Prague’s, there’s extra pressure to get a little misty-eyed during farewells (even if they happen on the gloomy dance floor of Cross Club) and to make promises like “we’ll see each other again soon on the other side of the pond.” Don’t fear, dear reader: I am planning to keep most of these appointments.

A few of things I will miss about Prague include the cheap price of groceries and thus-far  unparalleled affordability of beer, and Castle vantages when my daily tram crossed the river, as well as the Czech language, which, when muttered, is as ticklish as a bushy Slavic mustache. Listening to the podcast of This American Life while being very much not in America or touching base with the day-to-day drudgery of American politics by watching Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (commercial free?) have been curious reminders of the digital, hyper-globalized world that I am apparently studying. I’ve had a hard time brainstorming what I will miss less. ‘GMail assuming that I read Czech’ is more a minor quibble, and the throngs of tourists that clog Old Town Square is an overly obvious complaint, though unfortunately, the journey that my friend Dan and I are taking for the next few weeks will bring us through some of Europe’s other most highly trafficked tourist cities, including Paris, Florence, Venice and Rome. (Any last-minute advice?)

Though its a week late, an extra realization that’s dawning on me as we plan our jam-packed itinerary and gradually lose the mindset of being ‘settled’ in Prague is that everyone travels quite differently. Some people (like Dan and I) will try to see literally all of Paris’s great museums in a day, racing from one to the next only because of the novelty afforded by Nuit Des Musees – the night when many are open until midnight or 1am – but many others will prefer hours of people watching in cafes, or strolls through the Jardin Luxembourg.  My experiences travelling this summer in Europe have made me more aware of the similarities of landscapes city-to-city and so ideally, I’ve prefered to maximize my time that which can be more challenging to experience (if not altogether grueling) but which cannot be replicated elsewhere. It’s no surprise that this has often been in the artworks and music of the place, with the occasional local night-time haunt, but in the future I’d like to try to focus on the natural beauty outside the city proper, as well.

It’s been a pleasure getting to know a little bit about the people behind the icons and reading your reports here on the site, and I hope you’ve enjoyed skimming my own. I wish you all restful summers, and hope that maybe we can have a reunion (IRL), once we are back in New York.  As they say to end cell phone calls all over Europe, Ciao ciao!

[My photo, as usual.  Illustrating the crush of tourists that have descended on the square. A sight I will not see for a while now.  It was so much fun to walk in that gap they left at the front and take pictures of the crowd...]