Finding the Moment: Our Time in Czech Switzerland

“I’m going to teach you how to eat raisins meditatively.” This was the sentence NYU Prague professor Tony Ackerman used to kick off our three day retreat in rural Czech Switzerland last month. Before I get into talking about raisins, meditation, and the trip itself though, I think I owe you a bit of context so this seemingly absurd statement can make a bit more sense.

Of all the NYU sponsored trips offered this semester, this retreat appealed to me more than any of the others. The “digital detox” seemed like a nice way to de-stress, the trip was being led by one of my favorite professors, and the pictures online looked stunning. How could I possibly pass this up? However, the biggest reason I originally wanted to go was because when I read “Czech Switzerland” for the first time, I thought we’d be going close to Switzerland (like Swiss Switzerland)… Yeah, this was foolish for a couple of reasons:

1. Fun fact that most people probably already know: The Czech Republic doesn’t even share a border with Switzerland (they’re like 900 km apart). I’m just bad at geography apparently.
2. Czech Switzerland is in Northern Bohemia, so basically in the complete opposite direction from Switzerland if you leave from Prague.

Laugh at me in the comments all you want, but honestly, knowing less about this trip going in made it so much more enjoyable. In fact, I think this is the best trip I’ve taken in Europe so far (and I’ve been to the real Switzerland btw). No aspect of this retreat disappointed me in the slightest, but read about it for yourself!

Day 1 (Oct. 13):

Tony standing “aesthetically” in front of the mountains as Jae described it.

After congregating at Vltavská metro station, we began our two hour bus ride north. I always forget how green the world is beyond the outskirts of cities, and for my first time seeing the Czech countryside, it definitely didn’t disappoint! Huge mountains sprawled on the horizon, multicolored cabins lined the sides of the winding roads, and there were so many cows. For the most part though, I slept through a good majority of the ride and listened to some music, knowing that this would probably be the last time I’d see my phone all weekend (if you’re ever driving through the Czech countryside, Adam Melchor and Chelsea Cutler set the vibe pretty well).

Tony met us at the Wellness Hotel Zámeček and almost instantly launched us into our first meditation lesson. “Concentrate on the feeling of your fingertips in your lap, count to seven as you breathe in, feel the raisin in your mouth,” Tony instructed. As someone who has never meditated before, being this aware of my body and breathing felt very foreign and awkward to me, but at the same time it was also very refreshing and peaceful. It was at this moment that I was able to forget all about my upcoming midterm the following Monday. Afterwards, he took up our phones and our “digital detox” officially began, and Tony couldn’t be more excited.

“You know how it is when you’re really enjoying an activity and you just can’t wait to get up in the morning? I feel like trips like these give me a lot of energy.” – Tony Ackerman.

Our hotel stood in front of a massive mountain (this picture definitely makes it look a lot more creepy than it actually is).

We spent the rest of the day hiking in the mountains. As Tony led us towards a river in a deep valley, he guided us through different methods of appreciating our surroundings. For some legs of the trip, he instructed us to walk in silence so we could hear the music of the world around us. For others, he took a more hands-on approach. “Find a tree and touch the bark. Tell it thank you for all that it does for us,” Tony prompted. As we descended further towards the river, massive sandstone monoliths towered overhead. Between these pillars and the massive trees, I felt like an ant.

The massive trees in the woods of Czech Switzerland towered above our heads, nearly obscuring the sky.

Later, after an amazing Czech dinner, we sat around a campfire and sang popular American songs from the ‘60s. It was hard to believe that one day prior I had been in school. It was like time outside of that moment didn’t exist. For maybe the first time in my life, I was truly living in the present. We finished the night off by stargazing. I’ve never been in a place with such little light pollution that the sky is actually brighter than the ground at night. It was an amazing sight. We even had a short chance to check our phones if needed, but surprisingly, a lot of people (myself included) declined the offer.

“The first day was hard,” Tatyanna Gooden remarked about our “digital detox” in retrospect. “But after a day without my phone, I realized that I really don’t like it and I hated getting it back. The only thing I did have a problem with was not knowing the time. I needed a watch. In the future, if I had a watch, I’d have no problem with giving up my phone again.”

Since we didn’t have our phones on the trip, all of the pictures you see in this article were taken by Jae on her film and polaroid cameras! For her, not having a phone posed its own set of problems. “Usually, I use an app on my phone to help me set my shutter speed so my shots don’t get over-exposed. On this trip though, I just had to eyeball it. So in the end, a lot of my shots turned out to be unusable because of the light.”

Day 2 (Oct. 14):

The second day was easily my favorite of the entire trip. It was also the day with the worst weather the entire weekend too. In the morning, after leading us through another meditation lesson (getting more advanced and diverse as the weekend went along), Tony split everyone into two groups. Both groups traveled about fifteen minutes to Tony’s village. While one took a yoga class from his wife, Helena, the other group (my group) received a personal tour from Tony himself.

Some chopped trees in the forest, most likely ready to be turned into firewood or simply cut down to help the other trees in the forest grow.

For me, even through all the rain and mud, this little tour is still the most memorable part of the trip for me. Jae, Leon, Tatyanna, and I got to meet Tony’s dog, Zoe and together, the six of us walked around the small village. It was so cool to learn about the tight-knit community that lived there, and really showed me how much I’ve missed that since moving to New York City. Tony took us to see his eleven chickens and fed them some leftover noodles (I think Zoe ate more of their food than they did). Then, he showed us a decrepit, partially restored German cemetery. Apparently, after the Germans were ousted from Czechoslovakia after WWII, the headstones in the cemetery were destroyed. What remained wasn’t tended to. In all honesty, the physical space mixed with the atmosphere created by the gloomy weather made it feel like we were on the set of a horror film, but it also surprised me seeing just how much history there can be even in a small place like this remote village.

We made it back to Tony’s house and played with Zoe in the yard while we waited for the other group to finish with yoga. Tony even let us pick some fresh apples from the trees in his yard! From there, we returned to the hotel, grabbed lunch, and went on another walk to a “silent boat ride.” Much like the silent legs of our walk from yesterday, this boat ride was meant to help us really immerse ourselves in the nature around us. We could hear the birds and the water flowing beneath us, smell the trees on the cliffs around us, and feel the cool breezes – it was like Tony was giving us experiences to build on his morning meditations.

Massive cliff faces rose from either side of the river as we silently sailed down its current. It was like being in a gorge or ravine!

In the evening, the weather cleared up for the first time all day to reveal probably the most beautiful sunset that I’ve ever seen (featured image). In Leon’s words, we “frolicked, pranced, and ran” around the hills underneath it. This sunset seemed to have left a profound impact on all of us including Tony who said, “how could you look at that sunset and not think that there’s a god of some sort.” From there, my group traveled back to Tony’s village to experience Helena’s yoga class for ourselves. I think my biggest takeaway from this was that I’m not flexible in the slightest, but regardless, it was still very relaxing.

Day 3 (Oct. 15):

Our final day was the shortest of the three. The one and only activity of the day took place right outside the hotel. Tony walked us up the hill and led us in one final meditation lesson and reflection on the trip at large. Zoe even came with him to see us one more time! The weather was finally completely clear and I still remember how the sunny mountainscape looked as we sat on the hill.

Later on, I asked Tony what he hoped students would walk away from a trip like this with. These were his answers:

1. “Even though we are destroying this Earth at a rapid pace, we are still surrounded by wonderful nature which helps us discover who we are and what our place is. I want people to know that it’s within arm’s reach.”
2. “Happiness is not about an external situation, but our relationship to it.”
3. “I want people to learn how to meditate because it’s such a good life-exercise to keep you peaceful and happy.”

I’ve always been someone who likes to deal with things like stress, conflict, or most of my negative emotions so head on it’s almost to a fault, but this retreat showed me that it’s actually easy and healthy to sometimes just take a step back. It’s easy to put my phone down for a day. It’s freeing to not constantly be thinking about the time. As difficult as it is to stay and live in the moment, it’s something I should try more. The world really is a beautiful place that I want to appreciate more, and I also, in turn, should appreciate myself more, and take care of my mind accordingly.

Before I knew it, we were back in Prague, but that didn’t mean that I was instantly stressed again. I felt refreshed, calm, and had much more energy to take on the things coming my way. Since coming back from the trip, I’ve been trying to remember the things I learned that weekend to keep me in this more open, free state. I’ve even been attending Tony’s weekly meditation courses in Osadni!

Epilogue (Oct. 18):

Remember how I mentioned that Tony let us pick some apples in his yard? Well, on the Wednesday following the trip, Jae, Leon, Tatyanna, and I met up again in Osadni and turned them into an apple pie! We went out and bought all of our ingredients and made (mostly) everything from scratch. Even though we had our phones back, it was fun to look back on the trip, bring everything full circle, and spend time with the new friends we made over the past weekend. Everything Tony had shared with us, we were now sharing with each other. This was the perfect way to tie up this experience.

“I’ve done about twenty of these trips. Whether it’s the trip itself or teaching meditation, sharing it with others adds a whole new dimension.” – Tony Ackerman.

“I usually don’t like pie, but I loved this one,” Tatyanna said. Personally, I think it’s the best apple pie I’ve ever had. It was interesting how Tony’s apples were slightly sour, so they added a really unique taste against the sweet dough and caramel. Leon, who couldn’t stop eating the apple pieces while we were baking said that “the apples tasted so great on their own that it kind of felt like a disservice to make something with them” (don’t worry though, he still liked the pie).

A polaroid photo of us with our completed apple pie (about fifteen minutes after this was taken, the entire pie was gone).

In all though, this was such a great trip and personally, the best NYU-connected experience I’ve been a part of in college thus far (it’s kind of funny how it literally has nothing to do with the school part of college though). So, if you want my recommendation on where I think is a must-see place in the Czech Republic, I think it goes without saying that you need to go see Czech Switzerland. 

“I felt more social and more in the moment while we were there, and moments are all we have. You can quote me on that.” – Leon Sleator.

---

Film photos and featured image courtesy of Jae Jin.
Featured image edited and designed by Jae Jin.