I*EARN – Prague 18.-22.3.1998 More than just a trip.
It was a cold morning, the beginning of a typical March day. Windy, cloudy, simlply said, lovely. Seven strange persons were standing on a train station platform, deciding which train to get on. Due to their strange behavior, everyone passing by could know which school do they attend. Yeah, an original “Srobarka” team ! Under the command of our charismatic leader Mr. Vrabel, we were up to visit Prague for a couple of days. Of course, it wasn’t anything like a sighsteesing trip or, how to say it…a PPE (a Prague Pub Expedition) because we had a serious task. We had namely been chosen to become ones who visit the International I*EARN Meeting taking place in the beautiful capital of Czech Republic. The journey lasted nine and a half hours, so you can imagine our appearances after getting off the comfortable IC train. Tired, angry & first of all, HUNGRY. Our charismatic leader had no problems coping with that difficult situation and showed us the way to a good-looking ´Ubytovací zařízení Prokopka´ in Žižkov. After taking a long-awaited shower, living zombies (due to our sleepy movements) called Maťa, Lucia, Verča, Palo, Roman, Slavo and Joko (our charismatic…..aaaargh!) went silently to the bedrooms and, surprisingly, fell asleep in about five minutes. Kind of strange, when I think about our night-life passion.
It all began on the next day. First conferences, meetings with different people from different countries, and first knowledge about what is it actually all about. According to me, it was really interesting to talk to persons from countries I’ve never heard about (well…almost never; I’m not THAT stupid) and share my opinions and attitudes about various topics…like the beauty of Slovak girls, for instance. The sessions were taking place at Prokopka and the Trojka centre and, speaking in general, their basic topic was how to make as good a connection between European countries as possible. I think I had already gone through more exciting and fascinating experiences in my life than these, but, however, we noticed lots of interesting points and ideas and did our best in participating to the I*EARN movement. I have to admit that during one of the final sessions (after a sleepless night), I almost fell asleep, but then the great showman Yuri made me sing a cool tune ‘Building Bridges’ together with all the others with a happy smile on my face.
We had quite a good schedule during our stay; much to do, but still plenty of time to relax and hang out. For example, we went to see the city centre at night and, except well-known things like Václavák, Karlúv most, or McDonald (phew!), I was impressed by a few women, dressed VERY strange, walking down the streets and talking to strangers. Hmmm, yeah, maybe they wanted to know what’s the time. Definitely. We also saw the performance (black theatre) in Theatre Image, which we liked so much, and also the famous and adored Dracula. What to say, it really deserves our admiration. As proper young people, we enjoied visiting various restaurants, pizzerias (recommended by our funny companion Dan Lowman) and pubs…WHOOPS!!! I wanted to say, clubs. But one of the greatest experiences was probably playing various card games with our friends from all over the Europe (Ahoj Honzo, Ondro&Grega;). So much fun, SO MUCH FUN !!! We really liked the time we spent together (and Maťa certainly liked her Economics book which she always carried by herself). To sum up, it was a great stay, something like a cool mixture of knowledge, experience, and fun. Howgh.
from the ship log of Slavo Herman