pesach (passover, ie. spring break – in april) provided a good opportunity to get out of israel and forget about being a medical student for a couple days. my initial well-planned plan was to make my way to afghanistan (for serious). i have a friend who lives in kabul, had a place to stay, and was two clicks away from some cheap airline tickets. unfortunately however, they decided to reject my visa application. maybe it was for the best though, as the taliban decided to mount a sustained attack on kabul right around the time i would have showed up.
instead, i chose to head for another exotic destination: scandinavia! on the way up i had what was initially to be a 24 hour layover in prague, czech republic. what an amazing city! some tasty bratwursts and beer, unbelievable views from tops of towers, a colorful wall named after john lennon, an amazing castle, some fascinating jewish history, etc.! indeed, it was so epic that i unfortunately missed my connecting flight (also because my alarm clock didn’t work). after a few panicked hours under the impression that my tardiness was going to be the worst financial mistake of my life, an empathetic airline manager was able to hack into the computer system and salvage the situation and i was able to continue to copenhagen, denmark.
on the way from scandinavia back to israel i had another day in prague. my last few few hours in europe were spent enjoying cheap food and bottomless coffee at ikea with what must have been a substantial proportion of prague’s homeless population. then it was back to reality and the semester’s final exams!
