GOLDEN CITY

Photo

highriseeyes — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:17:49 +0100

Home is whenever I'm with you

highriseeyes — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 11:02:00 +0100

I barely slept last night. i’m too excited to see my parents and my siblings, my house and my car. my friends, my street.

(I am beginning to realize that I’m a composite of all of the places I’ve been. i’ve got prague on my fingertips and my tongue, germany like the soles of my feet, america always in my heart.)

To everyone who has been following me throughout my adventure on the other side of the Atlantic: I’ll see you soon.

I’m coming home.

weihnachts mittagessen at Gerta’s house today. when you...

highriseeyes — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 21:30:21 +0100

weihnachts mittagessen at Gerta’s house today.

when you realize you love people you don’t even know because your parents love them and the village where my grandmother grew up and Lutz’s broken english, a reminder:

“Samantha…like a tree in the ground…these are your roots.”

warehouses on the frozen lake. hamburg

highriseeyes — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 21:27:08 +0100

warehouses on the frozen lake. hamburg

lüneborg

highriseeyes — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 21:25:44 +0100

lüneborg

german sunshine & my room at the Gustmann house

highriseeyes — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 19:45:08 +0100

german sunshine & my room at the Gustmann house

"Don’t go. I’ll eat you up, I love you so."

highriseeyes — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 19:14:06 +0100

“Don’t go. I’ll eat you up, I love you so.”

- Where the wild things are

czech republic border.

highriseeyes — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 21:46:59 +0100

czech republic border.

hannover, lüneborg, hamburg

highriseeyes — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:47:22 +0100

trains and stations, waiting in the cold on platforms at night. Anke and I had glühwein in hannover. in lüneborg she showed me the houses that have begun to sink and crumble. Hamburg was a frozen lake, mansions and warehouses and the rathaus lit up at night.

I think I’m beginning to be ready to come home.

anke and ralf, cousins that I’m staying with this week at...

highriseeyes — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:14:00 +0100

anke and ralf, cousins that I’m staying with this week at their house in Wietze.

"Prague! Who has seen her but once will hear her name always ringing in his heart."

highriseeyes — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:15:07 +0100

“Prague!
Who has seen her but once
will hear her name
always ringing in his heart.”

- Jaroslav Seifert, Byti basnikem (1983)

I left Prague at 1230 yesterday. i was the last one. standing by the door while rachel and...

highriseeyes — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:08:53 +0100

I left Prague at 1230 yesterday. i was the last one. standing by the door while rachel and sam’s cab pulled away, I waved until it disappeared from view. From the back of a taxi to Hlavni nadrazi, I watched the city passing by and felt a kind of heaviness in my heart. we crossed the Paris bridge and I watched the swinging metronome and I felt like i was sharing the cab with a thousand ghosts. september and october and november and december. The streets we explored in sunshine and in rain and finally in snow.

now I’m in germany with my family and most of my friends are stuck in Prague and I’m preoccupied.

If I could be anywhere in the world right now, I’m not sure where I’d go.

Terminal station. Please exit the train.

highriseeyes — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 08:14:45 +0100

Terminal station. Please exit the train.

I woke up early on the morning of my last day in prague.

highriseeyes — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:00:55 +0100

I watched the snow falling through my window. I went downtown, I said goodbye to marketa and jana and barbora and z, I cried. I had lunch at the Globe with my best friends and I thought about arriving in prague three and a half months ago. I thought about all of the places I’ve been: london and munich, budapest, moravia, krakow, vienna, amsterdam. tomorrow I’ll take the train to hannover.

everything is different now than it was then.

last night was Radost and almost everyone was there and someone must have known it was eveyone’s last night out because the same song came on over and over again:

I’ve had the time of my life, yes i swear this is true, and I owe it all to you.

kelly and rachel and i stayed out all night and caught the morning train back to dejvicka at 5:30.

and here I am now. my last hours in Prague.

sad.

so I wrote Z a note and afterwards I cried over my coffee and I...

highriseeyes — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:39:12 +0100

so I wrote Z a note and afterwards I cried over my coffee and I really don’t want to leave prague.

Photo

highriseeyes — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:37:22 +0100

tears in my eyes at the farewell party last night. Z gave me a pocket-sized four leaf clover with...

highriseeyes — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:45:00 +0100

tears in my eyes at the farewell party last night. Z gave me a pocket-sized four leaf clover with the czech words pro štěst written in his familiar handwriting. for luck. on the back he wrote: good luck sam.

remember us, he said.

towns where no one speaks english. getting lost, getting found. watching the leaves change color...

highriseeyes — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:27:26 +0100

towns where no one speaks english. getting lost, getting found. watching the leaves change color from the castle hill. the letna lights, the swinging metronome. the way the world looks through a train window. strangers that become friends. friends that become strangers. hotel bars, turkish baths, gothic cathedrals and snowy canals. finding a lilac pressed between two pages in a journal. espresso hot and strong. endless bottles of white wine, endless nights. snow that looks like glitter. words on a page, phone calls home, castles illuminated against the night sky.

things that change you.

Rachel’s 21st at leo’s bar downstairs. everyone was...

highriseeyes — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:27:53 +0100

Rachel’s 21st at leo’s bar downstairs. everyone was there and everyone was drunk (and everyone was funny and everyone was pretty and everyone was coming towards the center of the city)

"you must know where you stop and the world begins"

highriseeyes — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:43:54 +0100

“you must know where you stop and the world begins”

- jenny holzer, truisms