Praha, Pivo, Prosim

Well, I had intended on getting out of town this weekend as it’s a holiday and I have a 4-day weekend. I’m still trying to figure out why Easter is on Monday but I’m not going to lodge a formal complain with the government requesting that I be permitted to work on a scheduled holiday. Oh, well. And also since I don’t have anything scheduled for Fridays, I thought this would be a great chance to get out of Prague. 

Prague is great and beautiful and awesome (certainly now since the sun is here) but I haven’t left the city yet and I’d like to get out of Dodge for a bit. I had heard about a great travel agency that sells super cheap tickets to Budapest but since they ARE cheap, everyone uses this firm. As such, I tried to book a reservation too late and the only availability conflicted with my work schedule so my hopes of going to Hungary were dashed. Fear not loyal readers, I’ll get there soon. Maybe next weekend. Transportation tickets AND 2 nights in a hostel could theoretically run me about 80$ USD.In case you weren’t aware, that’s fucking awesome.

So, since I’m stuck in town this weekend, I decided to max out my newly purchased 3 month metro pass and ride my ass off. (Too bad I can’t do that literally.)  Off we go!

Day one….Yesterday, I finally made it to Vysehrad. Vysehrad is an old walled castle complex (although there is no castle) just south of the middle of town. There is also a cool cemetery and an old church. Prague has shitload of old churches. St. Vitus is still the most impressive but they’re all far cooler than anything you can see in the U.S. save for the National Cathedral in D.C..

Prague is a city of hills. As such, Vysehrad is on one of these hills and it’s next to the river. The complex has killer views of town and you can see everything. It was a gorgeous clear day yesterday so it was perfect. The flowering trees are now in bloom and some flowers are starting to appear so the grounds of Vysehrad are really quite pretty and serene. There wasn’t nearly the amount of foot traffic there as is at Prague Castle so it’s perhaps a bit more do-able for anyone who has an aversion to crowds. Note to self: this would be a great place to bring some food and beer when M&D come in June. Cheap lunch at a ‘pretty place’ will be right up their alley.

After Vysehrad I decided to go back to the SAPA market in Prague 4. Again, the weather was much better than the previous visit so that was a bonus. I went into a random small cafe/restaurant and ordered a bowl of Pho. Unlike the Pho I had in the Vietnamese market in Prague 10, this one was with chicken. Don’t quote me on this but I’m fairly sure the it’s traditionally made with beef.  It’s all good because it was a paltry 80Kc. Hooray for cheap!

After the market I stopped by Glossa to do a few things in the resource room. Hooray for work! Oh, and I finally started working this past week. I can happily report all of my students are super cool and very nice people. Czechs have a reputation for being surly and standoffish but of all the people I’ve met, they are not this way. They might not be initally very chatty with ‘filler’ conversation but they are more than willing to talk. I’ve had no problems with students not wanting to talk or participate in planned lessons. Maybe I’ve just had a good week but I’d like to think that either a) they’re just super cool or b) I’m that fucking awesome.

I sent out a message to Keith (my teaching partner in TEFL) and a fellow beer lover so we went and had a few beers at a pub in Nusle. We met up at U Klokočnika and drank some super hard to find Kacov brew. Good times. And cheap. Karl and Dita came for a few as well and somehow I ended up going with K & D to Malostranska to listen to some dude’s band. Funny how random an evening can become. I went out at 4 p.m. for a few beers and got home at 2 a.m. I am a freaking rock star. We sat with other people that knew the lead singer (who happens to be a friend of Dita’s) and I learned some dirty Czech phrases from a cool Czech girl who was more than eager to teach me the local versions of fuck off, I am drunk, don’t shit on me, I’d like to take a piss, etc. I was a good student though, I took notes. Ha.

Day two…..Thankfully, due to my new schedule, I’m no used to getting up early so I was up at 8am on a Saturday. Boo. Day two of my 4 day weekend was a day at Bohemia Bagel and the Prague Zoo. Aside from the usual Gothic/historical stuff to see here, I’d highly suggest checking out the Prague Zoo. The place is enormous and they have everything. It’s really quite scene and pretty and constructed on and around a huge hill. Of course since it was Saturday it was family day and there were plenty of cute kids running around (or being towed in the zoo’s wagons) by tired parents. And even though I’m childless, the zoo kicked my ass, too. Three hours of hiking up and down hills is tiring on an old broad. Good thing I don’t have bunyons or a hump in my back.

This evening I  walked around my neighborhood and hopped a random tram to Prague Castle. The castle gardens opened for the season today. I went at about 6 or so and it was perfect. Although St. Vitus was already closed (or in the middle of a service), the complex was rather deserted and the light from the setting sun gave everything a really beautiful yellow glow. Ack, I should have brought my camera!

So tomorrow is day three of the weekend and I’m not quite sure where to go. It needs to be cheap or free. Hmm.</p> <p>Oh and the party in THE NATURE last week? Yeah, it was great. Open bar at a cool hotel/restaurant in the woods. These half liter beers can be killer if you drink 600 of them. Aye aye aye! Check for photos on Facebook. Due to my rather inebriated state,  I was clearly incapable of getting up to see Obama speak on Sunday. I’m a bit pissed at myself for that as it really was my intention to go. I give myself a big thumbs down!

I have plenty of photos from my adventures but I need to upload them all and do some editing. They will be posted soon so stay tuned.  

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.

It’s been 10ish days since the last blog and while I don’t have anything really exciting to report I can say that I landed a 3rd job. Although none of these jobs have started yet (yawn!), at least I’ll be working soon (Monday!!!) and will begin generating an income. While not working is great, it’s just a bit boring as I have no television and funds are limited. Boo on both fronts.

MEDIA Not having a television sucks. It does. I’m a tv girl. I miss my shows. I’d even take a CSI: Miami marathon right now and David Caruso is the biggest douchebag on American television. Damn. My time away is making me crave the Horatio. WTF? When discussing my tv woes with one of my flatmates (the one that actually speaks), she told me she found a movie website. Great, awesome, sweet! Ok, of course there are about a bajillion movie websites with free streaming feeds. The problem is that most of these feeds link to Megavideo. Megavideo is fine if you don’t mind watching something for 72 minutes or less. Apparently, the higher ups at Megavideo decided 72 minutes is the magical cut-off. At that time, you can either pony up some cash and get a ‘real’ account or you can ‘wait’ 54 minutes and continue watching. Problem with waiting is that well, it’s WAITING and the stream doesn’t keep your ‘place’ so you have to wait MORE through any buffering issues. Boring. Yawn. I don’t like that option. I’m sure there’s some techie issue that could get me around this problem but I don’t know what that is so….. anyway, since finding this ‘new’ site, I’ve been a movie whore for the last 4 days. My tally is up to 10 or so and that’s just sad. That said, here’s a few movie recommendations: Dead Snow (see below), Hamlet 2, Pineapple Express, Let the Right One In, Step Brothers, Winged Creatures, 3:10 to Yuma…..

ZOMBIES I was at Marks & Spencer yesterday at Palladium and the cashier guy looked like a real-live zombie. Yes, zombie. This dude was tall & lanky, super pale with sunken and reddened eyes and goofy ears that grew away from his head. Zombie was the first thing in my head when I saw poor Jaromir. He could be a perfectly nice man; this is something I will never know. But, perhaps since I’m fresh off the Norwegian horror flick ‘Dead Snow’ (with Nazi zombies–yes, really and it was fucking awesome), I think he looks more like a zombie than an average person who doesn’t watch such cinema.

DRUGS While I was walking away from Skrivanek (one of my employers) the other day, I saw a guy examining the crack rock he had just purchased. Apparently the drug laws (or enforcement of said laws) are quite lax here so thus the crack inspection. Good times. At least he’s monitoring his purchase before he fires up. I still haven’t seen the kids shooting up in the park behind the National Museum. Sad but true. I want to have an HBO Undercover experience.

MEAT I found some Czech-style bologna the other day. Bologna is fucking delicious. Sorry vegetarians, it is. Eat it. Now. My general Czech vocabulary hasn’t improved any so I’m still kind of shopping for things at random. When I was in the deli meat section, I decided I wanted a sandwich. My American friends know good and well that I heart my sandwiches. It’s true. I cannot deny this love. Bread + meat + cheese = Awesomeness! Anyway, this bologna is delicious. It’s flecked with fat which, in my book, makes a damn fine meal. Nobody ever really wants to admit it but fat is what makes meat taste so bloody good. It’s true. Look it up.

WHEN YA GOTTA GO, YA GOTTA GO A few weeks ago on the tram we passed along a gentleman in the street helping his son with a rather intimate activity. Clearly the kid had to take a leak and rather than go use a public facility, Daddy leaned over Junior and assisted in the peeing process. Into the street grate it went. Really. While walking to the Glossa office today, I noticed the second occurrence of said pee assistance. Different parent and different kid but yep, Momma had her hands on the cocktail weenie while the golden stream flowed down into the sewers of Prague. I really had to laugh as I was assuming the first instance was just some freak thing I’d never see again but I was proven wrong today. Now, my assumption is different. Perhaps during the hot summer months the streets will be filled with parents and peeing kids. There’s already enough dog shit on the sidewalks in this town, do I now have to dance and tippie-toe thus evading the kiddie urine?

EASTER BUNNY The annual Easter Festival is all over town for nearly a month. I don’t know exactly what this entails but there are food vendors set up in several spots around town selling miscellaneous meats and pastry items as well as the obligatory Czech beer. There also seem to be lots of painted eggs and children’s toys. Good times.

OBAMA IN THE HIZZY Obama is going to be here this weekend. I admit, this is a bit exciting and I should go. I want to go. But….. standing around in one spot all day does not appeal in any way.

Upon further inspection I’m happy to report that the security detail will not be permitting ammo or explosives. Phew. I was worried for a minute. Also, please note that ’structures’ are prohibited. I love the vagueness of structure prohibition. To clarify, exactly what qualifies as a ’structure?’ Is this something I’m affixing to the cobbled walk around the speaking platform or would say an inflatable yard pool fall under the descriptor of structure? I need additional support on this otherwise I’ll have to ditch my lesson plan for a newer and streamlined one.

BOOZE Wine. Let’s talk about this. Usually, I’m not a big wine person. Not that I don’t like it because I do and it can be great. However, I typically go the route of pivo and certainly now that I’m in a beer-consuming and producing culture. That said, I did make a few purchases at Albert last week. A good portion of the wine here is inexpensie. We’re talking less than 200Kc here (10USD) and that’s if you are springing for some ‘good stuff.’ My knowledge of European wine is for shit and the Eastern European varieties are completely lost on me. So, since I was in a wine kind of mood I bought a bottle of some stuff from Bulgaria. Yeah, Bulgaria. I didn’t know that made wine either. But hell, just about every place on earth produces or bottles their own wine so the Bulgarian factor really shouldn’t be so surprising. A big 49Kc is what I paid for that stuff. Go ahead & get your currency converter. I’ll wait. Like I said…it’s um, ‘inexpensive.’ Cut to two nights later and I was back at Albert. I’m not lying when I say I found something cheaper. Yes, cheaper than 49Kc. Behold the special selection for Albert (note the store logo on the back label!)–sold for the low, low price of 39Kc. And yes, I DID drink it as is evident by the photo. At such a ridiculous price, how could I NOT consume it?

SAPA MARKET The SAPA market is in Prague 4. In my last blog I detailed my trip to the Vietnamese market in Prague 10. I have since been to the market in Praha 4. The SAPA market is huge. Fucking gigantic. We’re talking a small city here. For realz. Yet another adventure involving a metro and then a bus. Geographically, SAPA isn’t that far away but I was really channeling Bourdain on that visit. I’ve never been to Asia but holy crap, it felt like Vietnam.

The retail halls at SAPA are huge. Several buildings with criss-crossed aisles again selling tons of clothes, purses, toys, etc. There is also quite a bit more ethnic food variety at SAPA as there are several independent markets selling odd-looking items. Of the shops I visited, there was/is a rather interesting looking item behind the glass in the meat counter. It’s a big plastic bowl of various (raw) cuts of meats and organs with raw egg yolks swimming around in the multi-colored flesh. I was curious to know what the stuff is but seeing as I how I cannot communicate in Czech or Vietnamese, I didn’t bother asking. Anyone?

One of the restaurants had a guy blow-torching some kind of meat on the sidewalk. Dude was blow torching like it was a lab experiment. The whole effect looked cool & random & gritty but he didn’t want me to take a picture of him so you’ll just have to use your imagination on that one. I’m going back later; I want blow-torched food.

MANNEQUINS The random mannequin parts are all over SAPA. Unfortunately, my website provider isn’t allowing me to upload the pic of mannequin heads in a metal bin. Damn. Boo on technology. Maybe next post. 

PHOTOSHOP Here’s a bit of before & after. Original was taken in the rain on a shitty March morning.

*note: since I can’t roll my keyboard to Czech, some of my Czech words are missing appropriate accent marks. So, if per chance you copy/past some stuff into a translator, it probably won’t work b/c of this technical issue.

I just learned a few days ago that there is not only one Vietnamese market in Prague but two! And by market I don’t mean a small corner store that has a few random Asian type supplies. No, these babies are big outdoor markets with lots of stuff. My kind of thing; and it’s also a big bonus to living in an amazing metropolitan area.

I tried to research both of them and came up with some bits on either however, the one that sold me was a review that stated the best Pho in town was at the market in Malesice (Praha 10). The other market is in Praha 4 and is perhaps larger but it was the Pho reference that got the win. So, since I live at the super awesome location of the Namesti Republiky metro stop, getting around is a snap. Trams and buses are equally convenient (and the trams run EVERYWHERE) but the metro is obviously much faster and avoids street traffic. ( *As an aside, the metro escalators are LONG. Seriously. Fucking huge. And they go fast. I’m impressed with the speed that little old ladies scoot their little legs onto the moving behemoths. Google a vid of the escalator at the Narodni Trida stop. Wikipedia says it’s the longest escalator in Prague and according to their list, the 3rd longest in Europe. Actually, I think it’s #3 in the world and it registers at 290 feet. Ok, you get my point.) So, I got on the yellow line and transferred to the green line and took it to the end to the Depo Hostivar station. (I took the yellow to the west end last week and it took much longer than the green line east. I went to the massive IKEA near the Zlicin station and that trek took approx 40 minutes and that’s coming from my central location.) Once at Depo Hostivar I had to wait for bus 208. Weekend tram/bus/metro schedules are different than the weekday ones–read: LESS frequent. I arrived just after a bus left so I had to wait around for another 30 minutes until the next run. Boo. Oh well. At least I was up at ass-thirty this morning so I was prepared for my day.

I arrived at the market around 10:30am which was great because the place wasn’t very busy yet and the vendors were all setting up for the day. Upon entry, there is a guard gate that well, um, isn’t very menacing. Based on the Pho-happy review I read, I was prepared for this gate situation and what they reported was exactly true. To be granted entry I think you are supposed to have a Zivnostensky List (also called a z list–it’s a type of paperwork given by the government to people who run their own businesses, etc.–I can discuss this in a later blog). The gate didn’t check credentials or any passersby so I walked right in.

On either side just past the entry are various shops. This place wastes no space in the mantra to SELL SELL SELL! Past that area are big stalls selling yet more stuff. They are essentially long hallways labeled alphabetically A-F. Each aisle is about 100 yards long. These halls are packed with various vendors of all kinds of things including: shoes, lingerie, toys, purses, clothes, kitchen stuff, socks, candy, etc. All the stalls selling clothing had numerous ‘models’ of their products on miscellaneous mannequin parts. For example, the people selling jeans had about 20 mannequin leg sets all lined up proudly displaying their merchandise. Kind of funny to see so many in a row like that. They were set up almost as if they were about to goosestep their way out the door. In addition to the clothes and random stuff, there are also a few places that sell produce and random Asian food items. I proudly report that 99% of said items were foreign to my naive Caucasian brain; in other words, I have no idea what the fuck they may be. I love that. In retrospect, I should have bought some random stuff to bring back to the flat just to try out. I’m game for that kind of stuff.

At the end of aisle A, just like the review said, there are a few ‘restaurants’ or food stalls. Unlike the retail vendors, the food stalls are enclosed and have small kitchens but they are not heated. I took a seat and a woman started speaking to me immediately. My Czech is for shit. I cannot speak Czech. Can’t. Do. It. My vocabulary base is practically non-existent. I knew what I wanted to order so I just said, “PHO PROSIM,” and then she started saying more stuff. I know she said something about hovezi (beef) but after that I got shit. She started pointing around to more stuff and I replied with, “Nerozumim,” (I don’t understand) and just started agreeing with her. “Ano, ano, prosim.” I pulled a Pilsner Urquell from the fridge and went back to my table. Quickly after, another employee rolled over a space heater for me. Nice move!

The bowl of Pho arrived within a few minutes and it was HOT. Steam was coming off the bowl of goodness in a hardcore way so I waited a few minutes and I surveyed the various condiment options on the table. (*Oh, maybe I should have mentioned what PHO is for anyone unfamiliar….it’s basically a beef broth with rice noodles, sliced meat and various greenery/condiments.) The condiments on the table were as follows: lemon wedges, a bowl of chili oil, Sriracha (hot sauce), sugar, fish sauce and a jar of garlic chili. Sorry, the fish sauce and sugar were too far off to the right for this picture. I wasn’t sure what the garlic chili was until I opened the jar and smelled it. No mistaking that stuff. So, I added everything into my bowl of goodies minus the sugar. I was first hesitant about the bowl of chili oil because I was assuming it was going to kick my ass. It didn’t and I added it twice more. I can happily report the Pho was phoking delicious (bwah ha) and really flavorful stuff. Although I’ve had it in the states before, somehow it felt more ‘authentic’ to have it made at a Vietnamese market. Of course eating the stuff IN Vietnam would be the best experience but I felt quite like Bourdain doing this back-alley dining experience. Pho and beer? 100Kc

Ok, excursion done….back to town. Remember me mentioning about all the mannequin parts? Well, there is a mannequin part store within the market. I didn’t notice it on the way in but what first got my attention was the metal basket of mannequin feet just sitting in the parking area. They were all on metal rods just piled in the bin. I wish I had taken a pic of the feet. Across the way was the mannequin store which, because they sell mannequin parts, displayed said mannequin parts on the sidewalk at the front of the store. It was all somehow ironic, amusing and slightly creepy.

Again, my timing for the bus was shit so I had to wait another good 30 minutes for the ride back to Depo Hostivar. Praha 10 (or at least that part) is quite industrial and um, not pretty. Perhaps it’s more of the ‘real’ Prague but it’s by no means scenic. There are big smokestacks on either side of the road probably polluting the lungs of Czech youths. Call Erin Brockovich, I think I smell class action lawsuit.

I got off the metro at Mustek and walked back to the flat. It’s only a few minutes and walking right through Old Town Square does not get old. It just doesn’t. It was around the lunch hour so OTS was packed with people and their cameras. Note to self: I gotta get to the Astronomical Clock and watch it mark the hour one of these days.

At the end of Benediktska (my street) there’s a cute little cukrarna (sweet shop). I stopped the other day and got some random berry yogurt thing–it was tasty. So, I stopped back again today and got another sweet treat. I can’t remember what it’s called but it looked decadent so why not, right? Under the sugary dome were 2 cookie-like (crunchy) discs with layered chocolate mouse between. There was also a slice of pineapple in there, too. Yeah for sugar!

Back at the flat by 1:30pm–nice work! Naptime.

Ok, it’s 5pm and I’m hungry. Shit. What should I eat? Yes, I should have gone to Albert or Billa and bought groceries. Eh, the kitchen here is kind of weak and I felt lazy. I was still on a bit of an Asian food frenzy so I wanted to find a good Thai place in my neighborhood. I found Orange Moon and it’s pretty much around the corner. Sweet! A convenient option. Out I went. Since I still had my camera in my coat from my earlier adventure, I decided to take some snapshots of restaurants in my ‘hood. Note, these are all literally less than a 5 minute walk from my seat right now. Dlouha street is a popular and somewhat trendy street so there are plenty of good options there…. All the places you see in this image are on or very near Dlouha–thus the colored dots. Sorry, I’m not going to provide links for all the restaurants in this blog. All these photo uploads and Photoshopping bits are taking enough of my time. My brain will fry if I Google them all. But note that in just these places alone the options are: Czech, Italian, Thai, Burmese, Indian, Croatian, Argentinian, French and Afghani.

Orange Moon was my destination but I got sidetracked by a rather unique option. Ariana is an Afghani restaurant. I’m fairly sure that Afghani dining options outside of Afghanistan are limited at best. A good thing about restaurants in Prague is that nearly all of them have their menus posted at the front door. Prices are listed and if you have even a limited Czech vocab (ME!) you can decipher some stuff pretty easily. Menu descriptions are neither flowery nor verbose so it’s not necessary to decipher some bullshit prose a marketing intern wrote. The menu was posted and it was partly in English so it sold me. Although Orange Moon is 15 feet away on the other side of the street, Ariana won out tonight.

So, into Ariana I went! I ordered the Kofta and the Mantu. I wasn’t sure if they would have beer considering the religious status of Afghanis but alas, there was an extensive bar menu. Pils it was. Kofta basically looks like flattened meatballs. They were served in what looked (and tasted) like a tomato-based sauce. Really tasty stuff–oh and also Persian bread was served too. In appearance, I can compare the Mantu to maybe dim sum. They are individual little pockets of dough filled with meat and cabbage. The ‘dumplings’ are topped with split peas, kidney beans, a yogurt sauce and a split pea sauce. The split pea sauce looked and tasted more tomato-y than of split peas. There was also more Persian bread. This time it came with some kind of green herbal paste. My palate could not pick out the components but it was tart and vinegary. Good but different. Ah ha! Google! No complaints though, it was all really quite good and I’m happy I went there. Total tab with tip 310Kc. I’ll be back.

It’s just so awesome that SO MUCH stuff is SO close! This is something I’m not used to and I love it!

It’s about 10am here and I’m done with my first batch of laundry for the day. Hooray! Plus = I like the smell of the cheap Euro Shopper blue colored detergent. Minus = no friggin’ dryers in this country which means I gotta go old school.

Ok, I Photoshopped some stuff…..as per usual, click for bigger. *Note: these are ’saved for the web’ images and as such, they are seriously downgraded. Web images lose a lot of color and ‘pop’ but of course smaller images are easier to upload and take up far less space. Just know the originals are better than what you see here.

1. Cool metal dudes at St. Vitus

2. Pretty windows at St. Vitus

3. Stained glass reflections at St. Vitus

4. View of Prague from the top of one of the Charles Bridge Towers. The sun was out briefly that day, so it was nice!

5. This guy is at the top of the steps of the Tower from #4. I don’t know who he is or how old he is but I like how creepy he is without a face just standing there greeting everyone.

6. This is about 2 blocks from my crib. The Powder Tower is right next to it but I’ll post a photo of that at a later time.

In other news, I got a job yesterday. This is a good thing. Feel free to ask The Google about Skrivanek. Already have a seminar on Friday. Hot diggity!

Hmm… someone asked me the other day if I was still buying strange food just for the fun of it. Well, the ham roll is still the weirdest thing but I did see a new aspic-laden item at Albert yesterday. It was some kind of fish (with scales) rolled up with stuff inside and under a thick layer of aspic. Mmm, delicious! I did not buy this. I did however, get some kind of cheese spread. I don’t know what it’s called but since it had SYR in one of the words, I know that’s cheese so my awesome powers of deduction figured this out. I will report it’s delicious.

It’s our (re: MY) responsibility to take out the ‘new class’ at The Language House. I will gladly go in and tell them to meet up with us so we can all go out. However, these people will not be coming to my abode. Why? Well, I don’t think I’d invite 15 of my real friends over–not even when I had an established residence in the US. Not gonna happen. Anyway, the drawback is that I do not want to be the ‘leader’ in the actual bar crawl as I have no fucking clue where to go in Old Town. The bars are EVERYWHERE and my sense of direction is fucked here as the streets do not follow an orderly pattern. Boo! When we were given the drinking tour, we ended up following some drunken English broad that didn’t know where she was going so we got to experience our first time on the night tram. Hooray!

Ok, the sun has been out since I got up 2 hours ago. This is insanity. I must go enjoy my day!

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.

Snapped this in the a.m. in the Vinohrady area. 

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!

Well then, I have just the website for you. Like everyone else in the world, I get a moderate amount of interest while looking through other people’s personal items and being a bit nosy. No, I don’t go digging through purses or anything of the like but when you make a ‘find’ of something other than your own, it can be fun. I suggest you check out Found Magazine. It’s pretty cool. Go for the random ‘finds’ as they tend to be the best. Here are a few I screencapped this morning for your pleasure. Of course, as usual with small images, just click for the larger version.