Praha, Pivo, Prosim

I’ve had a few screencaptures on my desktop for a while now and I fully intended to integrate them into a blog. It hasn’t happened. So, to clean up my desktop, I’m giving you a random synopsis of what I have…..

A few weeks ago President Obama gave a speech at Prague Castle. It was free to the public and many, many people attended. With all my democratic will I planned to watch/listen to this event as not only have I never had this kind of experience, it would certainly make a unique and memorable milestone all the while doing it in a foreign country. Alas, I did not attend. Considering my massive beer intake (free!) the night before, my priorities shifted in the night. If I mention that I slept in my clothes and shoes, that could perhaps give an indication as to my immediate motivation–GO TO BED. When 7am rolled around and I was supposed to meet some peeps to go to the speech, my hungover and pathetic ass was in a deep slumber. Damn that free beer.

Although I have yet to read the full transcript, I understand President Obama spoke about Iran and all the requisite things an American President should talk about. Following the speech, The Prague Daily Monitor printed the transcript as well as posted some viewer comments. Here are two of them.

Pavla is pissed. Is that a fair assumption?

A most excellent idea!! Including myself, I know more than enough people who would echo such a sentiment.

I saw a human gnome on the metro this morning. Yes, a real life gnome. I shit you not. This little man was probably about 4′10″ and that certainly didin’t help his gnomish predicament. Ok, so the guy wasn’t wearing a cute little red hat or shoes that curled up but by God, this guy had the beard and long hair. I’m half convinced that this guy was probably an extra Hobbit.

Speaking of Lord of the Rings, here’s a super nerdy thing that I should mention. At one of my jobs/schools they have a secure in-house web connection for anyone to use. When you are on the network all the other connections appear. Since this is a password protected connection, all the computers are on company premises. I just want to know who the big LOTR freak is that dude names ALL the connections about imaginary places.

And lastly here’s an amusing bit from a class I taught last week. I did a lesson on the ’second conditional.’ (The second conditional is a way of speaking that is used when talking about something that is unlikely, hypothetical or IMAGINARY. Structurally, they are commonly seen as the IF…..THEN statements. Note the IMAGINARY part there.) So, in the lesson there was a series of questions relating to photos I had on the table. The photos were of famous people and the questions were actually from real interviews. One of the questions was about living in another period of time. After the questions, I then asked the student about what that the interview questions were based on. Primarily, I stated, ‘Ok, so these previous questions–were they about REAL or IMAGINARY things?’ My student then proceeds to tell me that in particular the question about going to another period of time could be real. My thinking, ‘Uhhmm, ok–where is he going with this?’ The student then goes even further to mention his past lives. Yes, past lives. He then stated that in one of his past lives he owned a small castle but that he was a very bad man. How did he know he was a bad man? Well, he was bad because he pushed his wife down a hill and killer her. So yes, to wrap things up, he was a bastard wife-killing feudal lord. That wasn’t exactly where I was expecting that line of questioning to be going. Good times.

After two gorgeous weeks of weather it had to end. As I sit here in my room on a Saturday morning, I listen to the wheels of the cars drive through the wet streets and I am reminded that it just can’t be pretty beer time all the time. As much as I wish it were true, it cannot be so.

As far as reporting my activities this week…… I have no exciting news. On Wednesday however, I was absolutely furious due to bad directions given to me by one of my employers. The directions failed to mention construction so that made my journey even more adventurous. Two metros, a bus AND a tram later I finally made it. With each step down the sidewalk, I let out another audible expletive. Fun. But, the client is a maker of sportswear and the class is in their ’showroom’ so maybe I can bag some freebie schwag out of the deal. It’s nice looking stuff, let me tell you.

Problems aside this week, I can confirm that I rode the metro like a mother last weekened. With 4 days off and no Budapest, I had to keep myself occupied and with the cheap/free options which, in my book, are always acceptable. I want a website dedicated to all the non-obvious cheap/free things to do in various places. Or am I just a moron and don’t know where this miraculous place is located inside the wonderful world of the web? Of course parks and just walking/wandering are available options but something a bit more stimulating would be nice. Discovering new part of town is enjoyable enough and certainly the added mystique of being in a foreign land adds to the journey. But, one’s legs begin to tire so one cannot walk forever. I do quite like the idea of just taking the metro/tram/bus to some random part of town and walking around. There was plenty of that on my schedule last weekend and despite all the cardio, my ass didn’t seem to get the message.

What am I doing today? I’m headed out to this place later this afternoon. (Scroll down to the South Eastern suburbs section….and read about U Klokonicka) It’s in Prague 4 and my friend Keith is a regular. Kacov is apparently some super-small micro brew (and brewery–or pivovar) that typically only distributes to villages and this place is the only pub in Prague that carries the stuff. I met Keith and Karl & Dita at the pub last week and it’s nice only paying 18-20Kc/beer. That’s cheap. And for stuff you can’t get anywhere else? Even better. So, if the beer is made, you must drink it. It’s offensive to the pivo Gods if you do not obey. Keith also says they pretty much give you a double portion of smazeny syr there and it’s crazy good and cheap, too. Cheese AND beer? Count me in!

In case you are wondering……. I think I’ve mentioned smazeny syr before but it’s fried cheese. This fried cheese is not the kind Americans are used to, though. It’s not mozzarella and it isn’t served with marinara. Smazeny syr is usually made with Hermelin (tastes like Brie) and often served with a sauce similar to tartar. If it sounds gross, trust me when I say that it is not. Three cheers for cheese!

Here are a few pics from Vysehrad and the Prague Zoo. More will be on my Facebook page. And it’s repetitive of me to say but click for larger view.

Just a quick post with pics before I head out to a birthday party in the woods. Yeah, the woods. Or as Westergaard and the Czechs would call it, ‘The Nature.’

The weather finally got nice this week and it’s been a much welcome change! After 2 months of constant gray and clouds and cold and rain, it’s great to get some sun up in this piece! That being said, the beer gardens have now opened and I was able to experience 2 of Prague’s pivo offering locales… There’s a great beer garden at Letna park as well as one right in the middle of town at Riegrovy sady. Ask the Google. Here are some pics and as per usual, you must go clicky clicky for bigger. Also, I feel obligated to mention these images are compromised for the sake of speedy upload time. Although the originals were snapped with my point & shoot, they still have more color pop and greater clarity than the ones here.

Ok, here are some random links of places I’ve been so far… these are some I can remember. If I could recall all the bars I’ve hit in 5 weeks, the list would be much longer. Speaking of bars, all but one of the places I’ve been do not have cover charges. This surprises me. Although I’m not a ‘club’ person, I fully expect to pay a charge when entering the premises of a club. Nope. That is good. Popocafepetl is the only place that has charged at the door and that’s because of the band. However, since these places don’t charge at the door and they are more trendy and hip, the drinks are more expensive. But, that’s going to be true of any city. The bars/clubs in Old Town certainly get more Kc per beer simply because of location. Actually, last night I paid the most so far for a beer since I arrived. Sixty Kc for a beer is rather pricey here even though it translates to less than 3USD. If one is outside of Praha 1 (centrum), one can expect to pay probably 25-40ish for a drink.

Another issue of going out is how to find my way home. The streets (especially in Old Town where I now live) are often windy and change direction. My internal navigation system (despite my vagina) is usually pretty on target but when you are making twists and turns on curving streets, it’s hard to know which direction you are going. There’s also the issue of not even knowing street names and not knowing how to properly pronounce the ones that you do. Go ahead and look at a detailed map of Old Town and Praha 1. You’ll see what I mean. Also, because I’m a female living alone in a foreign country and don’t speak the language, I have to be mindful of how much I drink and know my way to get home. That said, I’d like to stay out later and have a few more drinks but the idea of wandering around aimlessly at night is stupid and irresponsible.

Most of these links have English menus on the main pages so just look for the Union Jack flag or a little icon that says EN.

Popocafepetl in Mala Strana–cool cellar atmosphere next to a wine bar. Mala Strana is on the other side of the Vltava and a really nice area of town. Pretty much at the bottom of the hill where Prague Castle is located.

La Casa Blu was a place we hit up last night. It’s a Latin-themed joint with plenty of tequila shooters, etc. Alas, I stuck to the beer because it’s the most affordable and delicious! There was actually a surprise Jagermeister promotion while we were there which was hilarious. Three girls in bright orange tops and black skirts and orange wigs came in holding portable yellow flashing lights….they were followed by a dude wearing a furry deer costume and a dude with a big black bag. Of course the wardrobe was all sponsored by Jager and they traveled around the bar for a good hour giving out shots and promotional Jager stuff. The guy in the deer costume never lost his motivation despite probably roasting in the stupid outfit. They had whistles and danced a lot all the while getting girls to take their tops off in exchange for free Jag shirts.

I can’t say much about Aloha Cocktail because we were only inside for about 15 minutes but I can say it’s yet another cellar type club that looked very cool. But, it was Friday night and busy so we went to the next destination.

Bohemia Bagel is popular with the expats as they have well, you guess it, BAGELS! It’s a bit much in so far as money goes but they serve American style breakfast items so sometimes it’s worth the extra 50Kc to get a taste of home. The Old Town location is about 2 blocks from my crib.

A neighborhood Middle Eastern restaurant, Dahab, is right around the corner. I hit up the deli area for lunch yesterday and had falafel which, by the way, if you haven’t had it, get it. It’s vegetarian and quite flavorful so you can feel a bit healthy despite it being fried. The nicer restaurant portion of Dahab looks super cool so I’ll have to check it out later.

Just a place in Zizkov that we went a bunch of times. It’s right around the corner from the Biscupcova flat and next to the tram stop so it was really convenient.

They say Palladium is the biggest shopping complex in Prague and they (not sure who THEY are) are probably right. Palladium certainly isn’t the biggest mall I’ve ever been in but it’s really nice and has some higher-end shops. I think I blogged about the ‘food court’ before so be sure and navigate to that part of the site. The all-you-can eat sushi place looks really cool with the rotating conveyor belts of food.

Potrafena Husa has a few locations but we went to the one in Andel a few nights ago. New and quite popular and the service staff is all men. The dude employees were not happy that night. I think they hated us. I had the traditional Bohemian potato soup that was served in a crispy bread bowl. Delicious. Potatoes? Check. Bread? Check. Sold.

The night we went to Potrafena Husa, we had quite an international group. Oh, and let me say that despite the reputation Czechs have for being surly and unfriendly…well, the ones I have met have been very nice and generous and accommodating. So, it was myself, the Brit boys, 2 Czechs (Antonin and Jarka), a Sicilian (Sandra) and a few other Americans. Jarka is a student from the Intermediate class and Antonin is her boyfriend or as he said, a ‘friend with benefits.’ They are super cool people so when we did our party at Amigos in Vinohrady last week, they wanted to meet up again. Jarka is a full time German and Russian teacher and takes English on the side. Impressive. Of course that’s on top of being a native Czech speaker. Sandra is from Sicily she and teaches German, Italian and English. Holy Christ. Just speaking one language makes one feel a bit useless.

Another super cool Czech I’ve met is Blanka– also from the Intermediate class. We were required to give freebie one-to-one lessons but since I didn’t do one with the bank employees, I had to give one to a student from a class. I met Blanka at a cajovna (tea house) in Vinohrady and our 1 hour session turned into three. She had promised to bring me some moonshine Slivovice (kind of a plum brandy/Schnapps) and she did not disappoint. Free booze is my favorite kind! Anyway, my opinion of Czechs? Cool peeps once you get them to chatting. They aren’t initially willing to talk much but once they do they are very nice and curious.

In other random news, I got up this morning to find the sky had NO clouds at all. This was a first in the 5 weeks I have been here. Apparently the winter months are quite dreary, bleak and gray so when the sun comes out, it’s a good thing. Being the nerd I am, I quickly got my shit together and headed out on foot to take some pictures. Again, I need to run some stuff through Photoshop, but when I do, I’ll upload and share with all of you! But, as I sit typing this at 11:30am, the clouds have moved in and to that I say BOOO!

 Lastly, I still need a job! But some interviews are scheduled so that gives me hope!

First, I’ll mention that I am now TEFL certified. Woo hoo! This is a good thing. Bad thing is the job market is shitty and it’s not going to be as easy/quick to find a job here as I initially thought. New friends in Prague are confirming this so um, yeah, that pretty much sucks. I’m moving into a new place tomorrow but am now 100% officially unemployed. Damn.

On a good note, Chris threw us a party at his place last night (good ‘power move’ on his part) and there was far too much alcohol. He also cooked dinner which was super nice of him to do and I think we were all more than appreciative of his efforts. A party that was supposed to end at 10 ended much later and most of us have strange/humorous stories about our evenings. I went to Old Town with a few people but when I got on a tram to head back, I chose the wrong one and it took me across the river. Let’s just say that I needed to go east and well, the tram went west. The public transportation here in Prague is great. It is very reliable and easy to use. However, the regular tram schedule changes after midnight as do the tram numbers. The frequency of stops drops to about 1 every 30 minutes and often you need to get transfers to get to where you need to go. So I knew I was up a creek when the tram was headed across the Vltava. I had a series of expletives going through my internal dialogue as I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to get back. I walked back across the river and got a tram at the Narodni Trida station. That took me to Namesti Miru where I got a second tram. Tram 3 was at Olsanske Hrbitovy. Hooray. My dumbass move cost me 90 minutes of my life. ACK!

Since today has been my first official day of freedom, I wanted to get out of the flat and check some things out. None of us have really seen much of Prague yet so I’m anxious to do what I can when possible.Initially, I wanted to go to Petrin hill and I thought that tram 22 would take me there. I was sure I had read that but alas, it did not. When I doubled back, I walked around the grounds of Prague Castle but being that it is a Saturday, it was very crowded so that was a short side trip. I headed down the hill and went by foot into Josefov and Old Town. There is some kind of regional European festival in Old Town this weekend so in Old Town Square there were food and beverage vendors set up. Good times. A Gambrinus was 40Kc (a bit overpriced but everything is in that area of town) and although it was a bit cold, beer is never a bad thing. I contemplated a visit to a Salvador Dali exhibit but canned that and ate lunch instead. Amos is just down the street from my new crib so I noshed there. I had some rather interesting pork ragout in pancakes and little potato croquettes that were basically Peanut M&M sized fried balls of doughy goodness.

There is an underground Albert super close to the new place and being one who likes markets and grocery stores, I browsed a bit. This Albert is a decent-sized store (bigger than the Lidl’s we’ve been going to) and its also 2 levels. Because it is multi-level and a grocery store, there is a moving sidewalk that is tilted at probably a 20 degree angle. Check that off my list as something I had never seen before.

After Albert I walked around Palladium because it’s awesome and so very close. Sorry, I keep going on about the amazing location of my new apartment but it seriously is the shit. On the food court level they were having some kind of presentation. And here’s one more thing I can check off my list….. what kind of presentation was it? Well, there were lights and a stage set up for a……Czech deaf teen fashion show. Yes, you read that right. The emcee was flanked by 2 women who were signing and then the ’show’ started with a girl coming out and signing to a Frank Sinatra song It reminded me of the Helping Hands kids from Napoleon Dynamite. The second bit was a funky R&B number with hip teens strutting their high fashion shit around the stage. Random side note…do you know how deaf people ‘clap?’ I did not until today. They put their hands in the air and essentially just wave them around. So, rather than give audible appreciation to the participants, there was just a sea of waving arms in front of me. *I saw a super cute baby at the show and snapped some pics.

I was finally able to get out with the ‘good’ camera so I snapped most of these today. They’re kind of random. The first pic was taken in this apartment building. I wanted to finally use the tripod that Omar bought me so…..

First, here are a few images of some supplies I purchased at Lidl’s last week.

And note that although I only bought a few things, the total was 60-ish Kc. The beer was on sale for 5.90Kc. Yeah, that’s basically free.Well, it sat in the fridge long enough. I cracked open the infamous HAM ROLL.

You will be shocked to read that the mystery ham product was actually NOT that bad. It did have a slightly vinegary taste which my palate is not used to. I don’t know if that was part of the aspic or just a flavor component of the white cheese/non-cheese filling. I do not know and it’s hard to determine. But, I can confirm (as can you from the photos) that the layer of clear stuff was frightening. I prefer not to scrape, peel back, or scoop anything away from my food. The ham & questionable filling were encased in the stuff and although I’m fairly certain it’s entirely edible, I did not want to ingest a fork or spoon full of gelatinous clear stuff that looked like it came from a bone marrow transplant. Just the mere act of removing the strange and slightly wiggly top layer of ‘food’ is a strange set of motions. All in all, although the overall taste wasn’t gag-inducing, I probably won’t be buying another one of these. For a small fee though, I will gladly ship some back to my American friends! Overall? The ham roll just not something you crave after a long day of work. Give me a bag of Fritos and a nice beverage instead; you can keep your aspic encased meat burrito.

Club Prdel

U Sudu

This was snapped at Club Prdel. Cool bar with a dance club in the cellar. Lots of places here utilize cellar spaces. They are brick walled with many arches &, in general, pretty damn cool.

 Old Town this morning. It was snowing and beautiful. 

This one was at U Sudu–another typical pub that uses cellar space. The street level entrance is very small. The stairs to the cellar areas are creepy and very small and you feel like you are going down into the basement of an old house. Once downstairs, it opens up into a maze of rooms, one after the other. Several bar areas down there, too. Aside from the complicated streets of the Old Town area in which one could get lost, one could easily get lost there, too.

I also made an iMovie clip. Check it out.

I’ll let the visuals do the talking on this one. Clicky for bigger as usual.

I wasn’t lying when I said it was gross and confusing. What’s the deal with aspic, anyway?

Yes, we have our priorities in order. And here in lovely Prague, the beer pictured is .5L bottles rather than pathetic & weak 12 ounce varieties! Ahhh! Blessed pivo! I drink at your fountain!

I’m on the 4th (but U.S. version 5th floor) of an apartment building. This view is going east. Feel free to Google map Biscupcova 3, Praha 3. Anyway, I opened up the big window one morning and leaned out bit to snap this. It’s a good example of this part of town.And, in case you need some clarification on the funky meat thing, here’s a video.

I’m happy to report no further bad food episodes today.

The Becherovka? Quite digestible and quite good, actually. It does have a kind of herbal taste but not medicinal like Jagermeister. It certainly has a cinnamon quality which probably makes the beverage more female-friendly. All in all, I will be having more!

The mystery can seen in the photo from the last post…. As I had hoped, it was essentially pork and beans. Cut up hot dogs and beans = good.

Our class is doing a bit of a pub crawl tonight around Old Town with former students so this should make for an interesting evening. We are meeting first at a recent graduates flat for a bit of pre-drinking so I’ll bring the Becherovka. Hooray! I’ll also be bringing along my camera to CAPTURE MEMORIES, DAMMIT!

Stay tuned!

My apologies about the smallness of the above video–it’s something I’m going to work on for future uploads. I had one hell of a time resizing it to something that wouldn’t take 4 days to upload. I’m a newbie at posting video this way. 

 Sorry, I don’t have any interesting food items to report eating today. Well, ok I retract that statement. But nothing in the realm of the horrible pork liver/hot dog food soup….

There is a bakery practically at the front door of the building so I went this down this morning. Since I still know squat as far as communicating in Czech, all I can do is point to what I want and say please (PROSIM). The pastry I purchased looked similar to some kind of Boston Creme or domestic US donut. It was small, fried, round, and topped with chocolate. The fried and chocolate covered parts are good enough for me. Alas, this was not really a ‘donut’ as a) it didn’t have a hole nor b) did it have some kind of custard or creamy filling. The chocolate top however, was delicious but it was rather unlike a chocolate topped donut that we are used to in the states. This chocolate was more ‘real’ and less from a ‘jar’ tasting. When the pastry was made, it was clearly dipped in melted chocolate and then the chocolate set. When I ate it, the chocolate crumbled off into bits. Oh and I forgot–the lovely woman at the bakery also sprinkled coconut on top, too. Hooray! I paid 10Kc for this. About a fifty cents. Nice!

Obervation–Czechs really love their chocolates and candies. Stores seem to have rather large displays of sweets–especially considering the size of the stores. To give an idea, I’d say a regular potraviny is about the same size as a gas station mini mart.

Oh, and yesterday at a Tesco Express, I bought a Milka brand chocolate bar. It was strawberry yogurt flavored. Not necessarily being one who goes through hoops for strawberries (I like them just fine), I thought I’d try it out. The actual chocolate bar part was rather standard but it had a kind of filling (not runny) that was the strawberry yogurt. It was actually quite good.

Tonight, I did just go to a (of many) corner POTRAVINY to buy some cheap local beer. I paid 43.90Kc for two so feel free to run that through any currency converter. Good deal. Shopping tip: lots of times you need to bring your own bags to the potraviny as many shops will charge for the bags.

Today, we got a mini Czech lesson–the typical introduction type stuff–Hello-My name is…–What is your name… etc. It’s hard to wrap your mind around alternate sounds for letters that essentially look the same as what you see in your native tongue. There are some accent marks that just make funny sounds and other ‘normal’ looking letters sound completely different. It’s gonna be a doozy!

Tomorrow, we do our first official (partial) lesson to ‘real’ students. Granted, these students pretty much get free lessons but nonetheless I just have to give out a big AHHH! I’ve even gone so far as to script what I’ll do for the short period I’m up there. Shit.