I’ve never been a fan of fall.
I just don’t see anything exciting about falling temperatures, shorter days, pumpkin spice everything, or worsening COVID numbers. The MLB postseason is nice, but it’s become a bit stale these past several years as Dodger and Astro fatigue has set in. (although I was elated to see the trash cans go down at the hands of a likable Braves team).
Obviously, as someone in the education field, I can attest to the fact that we go from 0 to 60 once the book closes on summer and opens on autumn. The stress goes up tenfold. As we talked about in our last piece, we have to find ways to deal with that stress.
So what’s my favorite stress reliever?
Traveling.
Yep. I always love seeing new places and having different experiences. There’s nothing better than having a free day in a new city. I don’t mind being one of those annoying tourists who takes photos of everything.
Even though I don’t like a lot of the things that come with fall, the season is still a great time to travel. And with COVID getting worse in essentially every European country right now, who knows for how much longer we’ll be able to jump on a bus, train, or plane and have an adventure?
Before I get into the three amazing trips I took this fall, a brief disclaimer: None of these journeys involved a plane. I’m still uneasy about flying. I’ve heard horror stories about vaccinated people being denied boarding because they don’t have a COVID test, people being stuck in foreign countries due to COVID restrictions, and flight cancellations causing hundreds of dollars to go down the drain. As someone who didn’t have a super-long break at any point and as a new employee in a probationary period at work, flying was just too risky. That and because of my irrational fear of COVID tests. I will 100 percent fly again in the future. But this wasn’t the right time.
I still like to think I made the most of it, though. Let’s jump in the time machine and have a look back.
Trip #1: Wroclaw, Poland
My only previous exposure to Poland had been a rather ordinary day trip to the border town of Jelenia Gora. I did that merely to cross it off the list. But I had three days in late September to further immerse myself into Polish culture. Wroclaw is a nice city, not as far and not as touristy as Warsaw or Krakow. But I would definitely recommend it. The architecture was impressive and reminded me a bit of Prague. There were also some tremendous riverfront views along the Oder. The food was amazing. The pierogies and potato pancakes were well worth it. Polish food >>>>>>>>> Czech food. AND they have a Papa John’s Pizza (not available in Prague), which was my choice to splurge on as I took in a Sunday night of American football from my hotel room. Yes, I shunned the the hostel route frequently taken by many of my compatriots and paid up for a hotel room to treat myself. It had been nearly two years since I stayed in an honest to goodness hotel (I love hotels), and the Hotel Scandic in Wroclaw did not disappoint.
Like the Czech Republic, Poland doesn’t use the Euro, instead preferring the zloty for its main currency. As far as I could tell, the prices were about the same as in Prague. And when it came to COVID, no one really checked much of anything. Granted, this was before the terrible surge that Europe is facing right now, and that the Czech Republic wasn’t much better in this regard, but it was still disconcerting.
I was lucky enough to be in Wroclaw on September 27, which is an important day in Poland because it was the anniversary of Poland’s surrender to the Nazis during World War II. I saw a small part of a ceremony held in the city center, and while I had to watch it from afar, it was kind of surreal. But if it’s anything that involves a piece of history, I’m in. Let’s move on to another historic place.
Trip #2: Terezin, Czech Republic
Especially if you live in the Czech Republic, Terezin is one of those places that you have to see once in your life. The former military fortress was the home of a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. In late October, I decided to take a day trip, as the village is only about 90 minutes from Prague by train.
The first thing I noticed about the town is how eerily quiet it was at first. I think that must be part of the ambiance. I only had a few hours there, so I didn’t see everything. But I did see the memorial and decided to put the phone away for a half hour and just take it all in. The reason I decided to go to Terezin at that time was because I was coming off of a terrible week, personally, professionally, socially, fantasy sports-wise, you name it. I felt that Terezin would help put things in perspective for me. I didn’t want to completely invalidate my feelings, but I needed to realize that what I was going through was absolutely nothing compared to the horrors that happened here over eight decades ago. OK, so it’s not hard to realize that, but sometimes when you get caught up in life, you need a reminder. I was not, by any means, being tortured. These people, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandmothers, grandfathers, etc., were literally going through torture, and many didn’t survive. I needed the eye-opener and certainly got one. After the trip, I thought for a long time about what I saw and I just remember thinking how lucky I was to not have had to go through that or knew anyone who did. I also recall saying to myself that it was a place I’d never want to be in at night.
With that history and life lesson in the books, let’s review our last trip.
Trip #3: Zurich, Switzerland
Typically, I’m a person with a lot of structure and I like to have schedules. But I do have a bit of spontaneity in me, especially when it comes to traveling. I woke up on the second day of my five-day autumn holiday and realize that, as usual, I had no plans. I far well knew that, because of COVID, this might be my last chance to cross a country off the list for a while. I know I had been debating between just using the time off to rest and maybe take a day trip or two. But when RegioJet has an affordable overnight bus to Zurich and you have four open days ahead of you, who says no? I booked the bus and hotel at 3 p.m. that afternoon and left at 11 p.m. It happened that quickly.
Switzerland was kind of a milestone for me because it was the 10th country I’ve ever visited. Double digits at last! Honestly, I hadn’t ever had that much interest in visiting the poster child for neutrality because of how expensive everything was. And when I was there, that’s the first thing I noticed. Things cost money. A public transport pass was over twice as much as it would have been in Prague. Six chicken tenders and a water at McDonald’s cost the equivalent of 17 U.S. dollars. One night at a three-star hotel was about $125. Speaking of money, nearly every car I saw was a high-end brand. Ford and Toyota need not apply here. Zurich was dominated by the likes of Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, Lamborghini, and Ferrari. I even saw Teslas and Maseratis.
If people are going to have cars that cost this much, don’t you think they’d at least know how to drive them? Nope. Not at all. While I (thankfully) didn’t have to drive while I was there, I heard car horns honking every time I turned around and even saw a minor car accident happen right in front of me. Yikes.
On the topic of getting around, the public transport in Zurich was incredibly confusing. I remember standing at a ticket machine for 20 minutes because it was quite unclear as to what ticket I needed. I eventually was able to figure out the right one…I hope. But if you use the wrong ticket and don’t get caught, did you actually use the wrong ticket? No wonder people want to continue to poorly drive their luxury cars….
When it comes to food, I know the main draw of Switzerland is chocolate, but I’ve never been much of a chocolate guy. Instead, I stuck with delicacies such as Domino’s Pizza (once again, Prague, step your game up) and a local American-style diner where my vaccination certificate was checked…twice. Overpriced, but tasty. And while I didn’t get anything from either place, I also noticed a Dunkin’ Donuts (not hard to say no when you’re overweight and a single donut costs $3.50 USD) and a Popeye’s.
Perhaps the influx of American food should have been an indication that the Swiss speak English extremely well. Far better than the Czechs. Nearly everywhere I went, I heard and overheard English being spoken, almost as much as the native German. I was impressed.
The highlight of my trip, however, was seeing Zurich at night. The word “magical” gets thrown around way too much in my opinion, but it was truly magical. Listening to two churches instantaneously ring their bells for 15 minutes was special. It was one of those surreal (in a good way) things that you just have to pause for a moment and take in.
You see, the workaround that I used to make this trip work was to go on the overnight bus on Thursday night, arrive on Friday morning, spend all day Friday there, wake up and check out of the hotel on Saturday morning, and then spend all day Saturday walking around the city before leaving back on the overnight bus to Prague on Saturday night so that I could be home Sunday morning. That way, I would have two full days to see the city but only have to pay up for one night in a hotel.
Having to carry a heavy bag and not having a place to use the restroom was less than ideal, but overall, the plan worked out OK. I will say, however, that having to walk around with all my belongings and valuables on a Saturday night brought my attention to one thing. In Zurich, I never felt nearly as safe as I do in Prague. Maybe it was just the unfamiliarity, but I found myself looking over my shoulder and checking my pockets a few extra times. Other than that (and two German border police officers raiding our bus for passports at 4 a.m.), the trip was enjoyable and stress-free. The policemen were actually very nice and spoke German, English, and Czech, but why check our passports when leaving the country and why check only our passports and not our COVID passes? I’m no expert in immigration law, but it seemed like a waste of time and an unnecessary stressor to people trying to get any semblance of sleep they can get at that hour. Maybe someone who’s smarter than me knows the answer…
In a perfect world, the border policemen won’t be my last memory of traveling in 2021. I sure hope not. But with COVID out of control here in Prague and in every neighboring country, I can only hope.
Czeching Out the World of TEFL 