Praha, Pivo, Prosim

Ok well, there have been a few interesting/fun events over the past few weeks so I’m here to share them with you.

Scavenger Hunt

Well, I’m not sure how technically correct the scavenger hunt title is but alas, that’s the name we used at the time. Essentially, it was just a fun way to get out and about on a Saturday afternoon and a reason to make multiple stops for pivo.
A few items from our lists to see/do/photograph included: a gun, a baby with a big head, a cowboy hat, a sombrero, someone holding two sausages, a cat, a mullet, bright hair, a Segway, a horse, etc.

An Impromptu Trip to a Castle

The Czech Republic has a plethora of castles everywhere. It’s pretty awesome to be able to see a castle for a day trip. Last Sunday, I visited Krivoklat. Its’ a short 60-75 minute train ride from town. Domestic train travel is really quite inexpensive and easy to navigate so off I went. The weather was quite cold & gray but it’s a castle so that makes it doable in my book.

I took the train from Hlavni Nadrazi (main station) to Beroun and transferred to a teeny funky looking train to reach Krivoklat. As is typical for most castles, Krivoklat is on a hill therefore when approaching it looks pretty awesome. The town (well, village really) is incredibly small–we’re talking population 40 or something. No, that’s an official Czech census statistic, I’m just sayin’….

There’s a short footpath from the train station to the ‘town’ and then visitors must walk up a respectable hill to reach the castle. Once at the castle there’s a main courtyard and at one end of the courtyard are a couple of Robin Hood looking dudes. There’s a table set up and they are shooting various forms of bows & arrows at targets and of course, any man, boy or child is attracted to such activity.

In no particular order I completed the following tasks: ate lunch, had a beer, walked up another hill, was a tourist, took scenic pictures, and peeked in the dungeon.

At this point I’ll mention that on the train to and from Krivoklat I was about the only person on any of the trains who did NOT have children or all the necessary child accoutrements. These people & their prams were freaking everywhere. Child overload.

Cesky Krumlov

Everyone I know has been telling me how lovely & adorable Cesky Krumlov is and how it’s a must see when in the C.R. They were right.

I hopped a train (again, cheap domestic travel–yay! 383Kc roundtrip = about 20$) on Friday afternoon headed towards Ceske Budejovice. From CB, I got on a bus to CK.

Cesky Krumlov is a really small town with a small permanent population. The summer is the peak time and from what I’ve been told many shops/places close up for the winter.

The Vltava (same river that runs through Prague) winds in and around CK thus making it even fucking cuter than it would be if it was riverless. The river makes big swooping loops and there’s a big castle that sits on a rocky hill above. I think it’s one of those places where it’s difficult to take a bad picture. There is a main square in the center with many little streets (with shops, restaurants & cafes) that surround the main square.

I arrived at about 5:30 so I found my pension which was, as the website indicated, at the ‘castle steps’. I could see the base of the tower from my window as the building is practically next door. Great location & a reasonable price. I did well!

Food….what to eat for dinner? Sorry, I just looked for a web link to the restaurant I chose and cannot find one. Booooo. A table of young & rowdy guys were next to me speaking some European tongue I’d never heard before. They were loud & obnoxious therefore, not Czech. They kept ordering tons of beer & Becherovka and I think generally being rude to the poor waiter. The waiter already had on a somewhat silly outfit so I’m sure he wasn’t pleased about their behavior. The restaurant is some kind of medieval-themed place with meat spinning around on sticks over an open fire.

I ordered an appetizer of pork ‘flitch’ and various cheeses. And yes, I ordered it because I had no idea what flitch is, was or could be. My main course was a wood-fire-grilled pork chop. A pork chop wouldn’t usually be my first choice but the Czechs go fucking apeshit for their pork so when in Rome…. Both items arrived at the same time which frankly, I really had no problem with…. I wasn’t expecting to finish everything but I was most curious about this pork flitch mystery. For those who aren’t in the know (as I am now) pork flitch is simply a cured & salted side of bacon. This particular item arrived slices with 3 kinds of cheese (I think Hermelin, something similar to Mozzarella and a mysterious third–probably Eidam). There was no way I was going to eat all that damned pork and cheese WITH my pork main meal. I’m ashamed (or is it a little proud) of what I did next…. this is a total old lady/ghetto thing to do…. I wrapped some pork, cheese and bread in napkins so that I could eat it for breakfast. Pathetic, right?

I walked around some more and went to my teeny tiny room around 9:30. On a sad note I was rather excited that not only did the room have a television but also satellite! Most of the channels were Austrian but I was able to view some programming from the following: MTV Austria, Al-Jazeera, Algeria, Morocco, France, Russia, Germany & even a religious Polish channel. Oh how I miss my DVR and cable!

So Saturday morning arrived and I promptly unwrapped my old lady pork & cheese breakfast. Lame, I know. But here I speak the truth!

The obligatory walk around the castle with requisite photo ops was in order. Additionally, a few stupid self-portraits were on the itinerary. Normally I’m not a fan of looking at photos of myself therefore taking photos of myself is even further down the list. I was feeling frisky yesterday so done and done!

Beer is king in the Czech Republic so the Eggenberg Brewery was next on the agenda. There is a basic tour (with no beer) for 100Kc or for 130Kc you can get the tour plus 2x.5L of the brew. All in all, a good deal! There’s even another tour package that includes as much as you can drink! Yet another reason why I love this country. No way in hell any American brewery would make such an offer. LAWSUIT! COMPENSATION! INJURY! DEATH! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! I met a few cool people on the tour too; it was a nice break from the monotony of silence! Nevertheless I chose the unfiltered beer and the dark beer. Thumbs up!

Eggenberg is mainly a regional beer that a bit difficult to find in Prague. The tour guide said they do however export to Italy, Russia & I think Finland. Interesting, eh? I had a special Christmas beer that was recommended by a beer-drinking pal and he didn’t steer me wrong; it was tasty and really reasonably priced! So yes, an enjoyable venture.

Other recent stuff: Witches Day & May Day!

Witches day is April 30th…. I really don’t know the details so here are some for you. h Basically, it’s yet another reason to drink. And we did. The evening was spent at Zlute Lazne (also known as ‘the beach’). It’s an outdoor area next to the Vltava that offers sand volleyball, swimming, food, beer, and lots of other stuff. The lines were insanely long and we kept trying to find maybe some ‘secret’ areas or service lines that were shorter. We were not successful. When you stand in line for 45 minutes you tend to buy a lot of beer which makes for an interesting ‘carry’ to your area.

May Day is May 1st…. It’s also a public holiday. Unfortunately, this year it was on a Saturday. May Day is the Czech ‘Labor Day’ as well as some kind of day for lovers & romance. LIke the previous day, we decided that this is another reason to drink. ODS (one of the big political parties) offers some kind of celebration/rally/whatever at Petrin Hill on this day. As part of their ‘subsidized’ festivities one can purchase food and drink for ridiculously cheap prices. Klobasa = 10Kc and also beer was 10Kc. Yes, 10Kc. That’s bout .50 cents. And don’t forget these are half liter beers. Therefore, one usually purchases as much as he/she can carry. I love Ceska Republika!! Aside from the working aspect of the holiday, the romantic thing is actually rather cute. You must kiss your lover (or anyone I suppose) under a blooming cherry tree otherwise you’ll be ‘dry’ for the year. We never did get clarification in exactly what way this translates but use your imagination. I’ll leave you with a quote from Raising Arizona, ‘Her womb was a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase.’

It’s a new year so you shall get a new blog…..

I spent New Year’s Eve in Old Town Square. Fireworks everywhere, tons of people and lots of broken bottles. Quite an experience! Pivo and Becherovka made the rounds. It wasn’t too cold and there was a blue moon eclipse. According to the news articles I read, it was a once in a millennium occurrence so voila! How did you spend your NYE?

Because of the holidays I’ve had little work over the past two weeks so I was able to travel. And travel I did!

Day 1: Christmas

I took an overnight bus to Zagreb, Croatia. Departure 9pm from Florenc metro. Holla! Because of the Schengen Zone there is very little border control between nations in Schengen. As most of Europe is in the SZ, it makes travel easier and little traffic is stopped/inspected upon exit/entry within the zone. Therefore, passport control was only exiting Slovenia and entering Croatia (a non-Schengen country). Entry into Schengen usually gets you a fancy stamp in your passport but going from say France to Germany to Belgium probably won’t add any bright shiny stamps to your travel documents.

Day 2: December 26

The bus arrived an hour early to the main bus station. 7am is mighty early after an uncomfortable night on a bus. Ah yes, the glamorous life of bus travel! I hit the ATM for some local currency and managed to buy a few tram tickets. The main square of Zagreb was only a few blocks away and the hostel I had booked was a few blocks past that.

Check-in at the hostel is noon. What is a girl to do until then?

Croatians are into their coffee. I mean REALLY into their coffee. There are cafes all over the place and they fill up quickly. Living in Prague I’m used to seeing bars on nearly every street corner (if there ISN’T a bar on a block in this town, something is very amiss). Sure, there are pubs in Zagreb but I’d say there are more cafes than bars. Coffee is the thing to do in Croatia–or at least Zagreb. I went to a cafe in the main square and ordered a very expensive coffee. When first using a ‘new’ or unfamiliar currency it’s easy to spend freely as the mental conversion rates never really kick in and you don’t realize the true expense of anything. That said, I ordered an Irish coffee (yes, with alcohol at 9am!) and a chocolate croissant. Upon leaving I was 60Kn lighter (approx. 12 USD). Oy vey!

I continued from the main square and snapped some shots of the main cathedral in town. The sun was shining and the clouds opened up. Considerably nice weather for December! Hooray!

Unfortunately, because of the official holiday of the 26th, many places were closed as was the Dolac market. If you didn’t know, I’m all about some markets. (But I was able to visit the market the following day so I’ll get to that later.)

A main spot for drinking/eating is Tkalciceva ulice. More time to kill still yet so I went there….. more cafes. Oy, these people are caffeine freaks!

I checked into the hostel and I gotta say the ’staff’ guy was a total flake. Although check-in was noon, this guy was clearly unprepared as the first thing he said to me was how he had just woken up and blah blah. The beds weren’t made and the place was a mess. Nice. But hey, expectations should be low for a cheap rate.

In the afternoon I went to the Mirogoj Cemetery. Not only do Croatians love their coffee, they also love their dead people. For real, y’all. Graves & headstones are decorated or ‘upkept’ with good care in this country but the Croatians certainly outdo the Czechs. Perhaps because it was Christmas the locals really did up the graves to the 9s.

On the bus up the hill to the cemetery there was a lovely babuska lady (I don’t know the correct term) with a mustache. A SERIOUS mustache. Although I live in the Czech Republic there are surprisingly few (if any) of the stereotypical babuska ladies here. Not getting the imagery? Think Communist Russian old ladies with their scarves/kerchiefs tied around their heads. Yes, yes, THAT look.

All these dead people made me hungry. Food. Needed it. Where to go? According to my ‘In Your Pocket’ online PDF guide (AWESOME travel resource), there was a local place I wanted to check out for CHEAP EATS. Traveling on a budget sucks but you gotta do it. It was quite a long walk down the main street but alas my sense of direction is usually pretty spot-on so I didn’t have any problems finding the place. I had the lunch special of goulash–delicious! It was served with some freaking delicious bread that I’m still trying to Google to find out what it is so I can make it at home. (Random: I think it’s Pogacha bread so I will be experimenting this weekend!) Since I’m sure many of you travel to Zagreb regularly, you can eat at Zalogajnica “Kod Duje.”

Day 3: December 27

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! What to do today? The weather on Sunday wasn’t as agreeable as the day before so I decided to hit up a museum. Culture and education! Yay!

The museum didn’t open until 10am so I found and easy-to-find cafe for some java. Moving to Europe really threw the ‘no caffeinated beverages’ thing out the fucking window. This cafe (and I noticed this elsewhere in Croatia) had a little something printed on the menu. It clearly stated the ‘book of complaint’ is at the bar. Yes, book of complaint. I didn’t investigate this further but it’s an interesting idea.

The Mimara Museum is really quite nice. It comprises of works all donated by one wealthy collector. It’s an art museum so I don’t know what else to say. Sculptures, paintings, Christian artifacts. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I headed back towards the main square because I wanted to hit up the Dolac Market today. In true form (as Judie’s offspring), I enjoy going to markets and discovering new and funky foods. Add in the new country/Euro factor and it’s even better. In the lower part of the Dolac market there were many vendors selling all kinds of meats, cheeses and breads. Additionally, there were even a few stalls with ladies selling these giant fresh sheets of pasta. The meat shops had all kind of funky cuts of meat as well as proudly displaying the carcasses of pigs about their stalls. Dead pig heads = awesomeness. In the back of the market were the cabbage ladies. The entire back half of the food hall smells of the soured cabbage-y mixture that sits in big buckets waiting to be purchased. It’s one of those smells that certainly ‘wafts.’

For lunch I found a place on Tkalciceva that was open. Before my main meal I ordered some Trappist cheese and bread. Those Trappist monks are busy guys: beer, chocolate and cheese. It was also served with that freaking delicious bread again. Man, I have GOT to make this stuff pronto. If the supermarket was open now I’d go buy supplies immediately. As a main meal I ordered the cevapcici. Cevapcici is one of many national dishes. It’s basically finger-length hand-rolled sausages. Really good! This particular meal was served with raw white onion and a Croatian condiment called ajvar which is a paste made from red peppers and eggplant. I imaged you could slather this stuff on a dirty shoe and it would be good. It’s that kind of thing.

Dinner was at Nocturno–a place recommended by the flaky American guy from the hostel. Reasonably priced food is always a plus. Croatia is known for their beaches (tons of Europeans flock to them in the summer months). So, if a country has a lot of beaches, there’s probably going to be a lot of seafood as the cuisine. Although I wasn’t on the coast, I wanted some fairly fresh fish for dinner. Grilled calamari stuffed with ham & cheese is delicious!

Palacinky (sorry, that’s the Czech word for this item–I don’t know the Croatian one) was my dessert. Sometimes a girl wants her chocolate! Anyway, palacinky are basically crepes. They’re easy to find in this part of the world and I can confirm that they are delicious. I had the chocolate variety.

Day 4: December 28

While checking out of the hostel, the flaky American didn’t remember me paying him two days before. Nice. Vince from L.A. is an aspiring rapper (yes, really) and he informed me that he has mad skillz, yo. At this particular hostel there is a ‘key deposit’ but once you check-out and return the locker keys, you naturally get your deposit back. Well, idiot Vince the shitty rapper asked me who I paid and I had to remind him that it was him. He had told me the previous day that since gambling is legal in Croatia (as it is here, too) he got into some money problems and was broke until Jan. 7 when he got paid. He then proceeded to tell me how my ‘key deposit’ was the only money he had until that time. Babe, I wasn’t born yesterday and I’m not pitying you and your West Coast Broke-Ass Rapping Self and I’m not giving you my deposit. I work for a living and am actually required to be responsible. They’re good attributes to have. Yeah, it sucks that the dude has no money but he’s not my responsibility. Get it together, dude. So, as I was leaving in the morning and he was digging through his stuff for cash (I don’t understand how this $ somehow became ‘his’ during this process but I didn’t ask), he then again emphasized how he had literally no money. At all. Needless to say, I took my money back and let him beg in his pathetic way to the next traveler to come through. End rant.

I decided to do an on-the-fly trip to Budapest. Why not, right? I had some extra money and the time off work so I said fuck it, I’m going. There was a 10am train so no worries. A ticket was purchased. I had some time to kill–I wanted breakfast. Ah ha! How about another national dish? Breakfast was a juice from a vending machine and burek bought from a little bakery inside the train station. I suppose you could say burek is pie-shaped but it’s not a pie in the traditional sense that you or I would consider a pie. It’s a round layered dough creation either made with meat or cheese. Mine was the cheese one.

The train to Budapest was a bit long and boring. Train travel is super easy and accessible in Europe; I don’t get why Americans don’t utilize it more often. We’re lazy gas-guzzling automobile whores. Anyway, Lake Balaton (Hungary) is quite huge and the train followed the lake parallel for the length of the lake. It appears to be a resort area of Hungary as most of the towns/villages on the lake were ‘closed up’ for the winter.

Upon arrival at Keleti station I changed over my money to Hungarian Forints and I was off to find a hostel I had Googled the night before. Because this was an unplanned extra trip, I didn’t have any physical maps to use as a guide nor did I have any real ‘tourist’ information so navigating my way from the train station to a downtown hostel could have been interesting. I bought two tickets for the bus/metro/tram from a newsstand inside the train station and I hoped I could find a bus or tram that would take me where I needed to go. A bus stop around the side of the building listed the stop I needed so on the bus I went. The Budapest public transit is heavily policed. (Way more than here in Prague.) A guy in unofficial-looking attire promptly pulled out his metro cop identification and began checking that passengers had the appropriate tickets.

I found the hostel I had researched (although I had not made a reservation) with relative ease and I can proudly state I didn’t get lost. Not bad work for someone in a foreign country with no knowledge of the language and no map or other information to use as a guide. The Goat Hostel (great name) gets a huge thumbs up from me. The place was really quite nice and I had a room to myself! Although I was paying for a ‘dorm’ type room, I was lucky to have it to myself. Ahhhh… The staff was super friendly and they’re going to get a glowing review from me on Hostelworld.com

Being a good Hungarian girl, I had a food objective that night: real legit paprikas. My Mom and Grandma have made this stuff for years (and it’s always been one of my favorites) but I wanted an authentic experience. Because I had inquired about a close place to eat dinner, the girl on staff directed me to a place down the street. The For Sale Pub served out a giant heap of veal paprikas. It wasn’t cheap but when in Budapest…..

You might be wondering….what is paprikas? It’s basically considered a ’stew’ but it’s not exactly something your slurp with a spoon. First, some dumplings are made–there are several varieties of dumplings in Europe. Here in the C.R. there are flour and potato dumplings. But these dumplings are made into a big ‘loaf’ and sliced off individually and served with meals. The Hungarian (and Croatian version from what I could tell) dumplings are the flour variety but they are much smaller and ‘individualized’ rather than made from a big loaf-like object. On top of the dumplings goes the meat/stew mixture. I suppose various meats can be used but my Mom only ever made a chicken version. Anyway, it’s a paprika-y/onion-y/red pepper-y thick reddish base with chicken (or misc. meat) and topped with sour cream. Trust me when I say this dish is freaking delicious. One of my all-time favorites. You will always win points with homemade dumplings.

The atmosphere of The For Sale Pub was actually pretty cool. Imagine a woody rural pub or lodge–that’s what the interior looked like. The floorboards were uneven (intentionally so) and there was actual hay on the floor. Small pieces of paper were tacked all over the walls (various notes from former patrons) which really kind of add to the overall feel of the place. It wasn’t the cheapest way I could have eaten dinner but I had little time and this was the homeland!

At this point I’ll mention that Budapest is fucking beautiful. I’m so going back. Seeing all the big fantastic buildings illuminated at night was a great first experience.

Day 5: December 29

Free breakfast at the hostel! I got a room to myself and they offer to feed me–most excellent!

I only had a few hours before getting a train back to Prague so today was going to be a quick one. From the hostel I walked down a main touristy street that has lots of souvenir shops and miscellaneous cafes & restaurants. As is per the norm with souvenir shops, everything was overpriced and in some of the shops the sales assistants were pushy and a bit aggressive. I’m not a fan of that tactic; it doesn’t work for this girl.

If you have ever seen a photo of Budapest it’s most certainly been of either the Chain Bridge or Buda Castle. Because the Buda part of Budapest is on a hill, it makes the sights that much more impressive. The castle sits above the city and when it’s lit up at night, it’s pretty awesome. There’s also the Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion that round out the impressive landscape. I walked across the Chain Bridge and took a funicular up to the castle. Frankly, my ass and legs were killing me from the crazy walking I had been doing and I was not interested in going up a steep hill. Sure, it would have been a healthier choice (and free) but it just wasn’t happening. Obligatory photos were snapped outside the castle and I walked over to Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion. The FB has great views of the city, by the way!

Back down (on foot this time) and back across the Chain Bridge. St. Stephen’s Cathedral is just on the other side of the bridge so I got a bit of my Jesus on while in Budapest. I passed through the Christmas markets and smelled all the wonderful food. Ahh yes, food! There were many kinds of sausages & mixed meat/veggie combos none of which I know the names too. There were also large knuckles or joints of various animals all cooked up and brown and crispy-looking. Sorry vegetarians, that shit is good, yo. There’s something just so wrong and so right about seeing miscellaneous meat cooking on the street. God bless the animals that feed us! There were also lots of handmade crafty items for sale such as traditional Hungarian clothing, ceramics, hats, tablecloths, etc. I couldn’t justify getting more money from the ATM to buy said stuff so I skimped out and only bought something for my 95-year-old Hungarian grandmother.

Back at the train station I had a ticket for the 3:28 back to Prague. I arrived home around midnight and I took my ass to bed.

Today: I wrote this blog yesterday but I managed to find a recipe for the Croatian bread mentioned early in my post.

I love how much awesome stuff there is in a big city. And it’s even better when this big city is in Europe and you live there. Bonus.

The street I live on is a sidestreet. Although it’s a sidestreet, there are still plenty of drunk revelers and ‘action’ to keep things interesting. On the back side of the building is my grocery store (but this one sucks) as well as the metro, a tram stop and a big mall. It pays to live near convenience. Anyway, on my little sidestreet there are a few restaurants and bars as well as a hostel and a police station. But additionally, there is a cute little cheese shop (that I think specializes in Dutch cheese). The door to this place is about 20 feet from the front of my building so it’s beyond convenient. Although the shop is small, they do have a decent selection of cheese that I’ve never heard of as well as various klobasas and meats. There are also two tables which I’m fairly certain are for drinking wine & eating cheese. What a wonderful idea!

So, in this country many businesses are either closed on the weekend (including Saturday) or they close at noon on Saturday. Therefore, if you are requiring anything from a smaller shop, you best be hauling your ass out of bed on Saturday. I went to the cheese shop at 10:30 this morning and I bought two kinds of cheese. I don’t have an itemized receipt but I think one is Farm Cheddar (brand name? not sure–thus the capitalization). It has a black rind and the cheese itself is rather pale yellow. It’s certainly not the bright orange cheddar Americans are used to seeing. Cheddar is nearly non-existant here so that’s why I bought 100g of the stuff. Cheese #2–I cannot possibly remember the name because 1) it was in Czech and 2) I had never heard of the stuff before. Maybe I’ll be nice and take photos for you.

Voila!

Today is a day of cooking–here’s the menu

Herbed baguette with cheese–not original but hey, it’s a good start

Roast chicken–made with a compound butter of: rosemary, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, oregano, marjoram, basil, garlic– also stuffed with lemon, onion, apple & garlic

Roast vegetables–organic carrots & potatoes with onions–made with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, oregano, basil, marjoram

Steamed broccoli—snooze, I know but my guest likes broccoli. See, I’m a good hostess!

Vanilla nutmeg pudding–layered with an organic blueberry reduction made with lemon zest, honey and apple liquor –topped with an almond/brown sugar/cinnamon crisp

Midnight–food gone, two bottles of wine gone. Done. Time for bed.

The Christmas markets opened yesterday. Reason #410 why Prague is awesome. There is a gigantic tree in Old Town Square. It’s beautiful. Enjoy.

Wine. It’s good for you.

It’s made from fruit.

Saturday September 19

Wine has quite a history throughout the world and here in the C.R., it’s no different. Every year in the late summer/early fall there are harvest festivals. These festivals are for a specific kind of wine called burcak. It’s young wine that is also fermented. It doesn’t taste like any wine you’ve had before. It’s available in both the red and white varieties.

2pm

So, cut to last weekend I went out with a bunch of people to the local burcak festival (there were actually several all over town that weekend) at Havlickovy Sady (a city park). The even at the park was really quite cool. Aside from tons of people, there was a big main stage as well as various tents/vendors for drinks, food & miscellaneous knick-knacks. The theme of the festival was some kind of 19thC. thing. I don’t know how to describe it other than saying many people were wearing period costume. There was also even the old-fashioned giant bikes; you know the ones with the huge front wheel and the teeny back wheel. To the side of the main stage was also a performance area (we happened to be sitting to the immediate right of it) where several Cirque du Soleil-type acrobatic performers did cool stuff throughout the day.

8 or 9pm

After the events at Havlickovy Sady, we headed over to Jiriho z Podebrad. There were yet more tents with more alcohol as well as several bands playing.

10 or 11pm

Off to Riegrovy Sady beer garden. Oy, the events get hazy at this point. Good times. I can report that some random drunk passed out guy was sitting across from me and the new TEFL kids decided to fuck with him so I snapped all kinds of hilarity.

1 or 2am

Next stop a bar in Vinohrady. Wow, I’m too old to do this power drinking. Yikes. I need to go home. But not until I finish my requisite pivo!

230am

After midnight the metro stops running and the trams change routes, numbers and times. I walked home. Most excellent. It’s good for circulation. That’s what I kept telling myself……’it’s for health….it’s for health!’

The verdict?Burcak is mighty tasty stuff.

*Burcak is sold in various quantities: ,33l ,5l 1.5l or 2lAlthough it looks a bit ghetto to be carrying around a 1.5 or 2l plastic container of wine, everyone does it. It’s in the pictures. You shall see.

Friday September 25

Another Friday night at Riegrovy Sady beer garden. It was rather chilly that night at not many people were out drinking. But perhaps that’s because it’s a three day weekend. I write this at 830 on Monday morning when I would normally be getting ready for work. Woo hoo for holidays! Nobody knows what the holiday actually IS today but we don’t care; it just gives us all another day off.

After Riegrovy we went to Akropolis. This is some random club/restaurant/bar in Zizkov. I’m normally opposed to paying a cover charge but this place was a paltry 30Kc. Oh well. I bit the bullet and did it. From what I saw the place wasn’t that fantastic. Although it looked quite large and also looked to be another one of those ‘how-many-rooms-in-the-basement-of-this-building-are-there’ kind of places. We ended up there with a friend of Sean Hardy’s who is hardcore French and introduces himself as (seriously), ‘Hello I am Freddy and I am ready.’ With the super thick Frenchie accent it’s even more hilarious than it reads.

Saturday September 26

I got a text message from Natalie and Jack saying they were going to Karlstejn Castle that day. Sweet! I hadn’t been there yet so I was game.

The Round-trip train ticket is only 109Kc so why not, right? We got on the 12:41 and headed out.

Tons of people got off at the same stop and we just figured that they all had the same idea as we did for a Saturday afternoon. Karlstejn is probably the closest castle to Prague that isn’t IN Prague so it’s quite a popular day-trip. Anyway, we soon realized that all these people were going to Karlstejn because of the annual burcak festival!! Sweet! I love this fucking country. We hadn’t planned on this extra bonus event! We were stoked.

Karlstejn is a really cute little town just W/SW of the city. It’s a good 2mi. trek up the castle but it’s right up the main street of the town so it’s by no means a difficult walk. Along the sides of the road were of course burcak vendors as well as lots of local trinkets, etc. Additionally, there was this big medieval theme going on, too. The castle was built in 1348 so there were tons of people dressed in period costume, etc. From the program information we read that at 230pm there was to be the ‘royal procession’ to the castle gates and then after there would be various performances inside the castle. Oh excellent!!! We made it up the hill to the gate and waited for the procession. I’d say there were a good 150-200 people involved in the procession. There did not mess around. Once inside the castle there was music, bellydancers & faqir as well as a court jeser/juggler/comic who the kids loved. Pretty cool stuff!

Along the way we guzzled a few beers and purchased a nice huge 1.5l of red burcak. The previous week I only had the white burcak and my personal rating of the red is higher than the white. I was told burcak tastes like cider or juice and I didn’t think the white tasted like either. Both versions have an obvious smell of fermentation and both are bubbly. (Actually, bottles of the stuff can explode from the bubbles. I nearly had the remaining red I have explode all over my yellow walls last night. I avoided disaster with my ninja-like skills.) The red burcak actually DOES taste more like ‘juice’ than anything and I can understand why it’s so easy to drink massive amounts of the stuff. Danger Will Robinson, danger!

We got on the 636pm train back to Prague and I was home by 8pm. All in all a fantastic start to a three-day weekend!

Sunday September 27

Since the day before we did a spontaneous trip to Karlstejn I was feeling the urge to do more. I consulted some online resources and travel books and waffled back and forth between Melnik, Krivoklat Castle, Kutna Hora & maybe Tabor. In the end, I decided on Tabor. Tabor is a town in Southern Bohemia. I had some friends go the day before and I got the thumbs up that it was a good trip so I went by myself.

I made it to the train station at noon and bought my ticket for 241Kc. The train departed on time (as everything does in this country) and I was off. The train was a (not really) nice old Communist-era clunker. It was old and rusty and had plenty of graffiti.

Arrival in Tabor was at about 2 and I made my way into the ‘old town’ area. Although I had no map, I’m usually quite good with directions (despite my possession of a vagina) and can make my way around places fairly easily. Along the way, I made the correct judgment calls and I found the old square with no problems. The main square of Tabor is really cute. I know centuries old cities shouldn’t be referred to as ‘cute’ but I’m a female, so it fits. Around the square are cool old buildings as well as a clock tower and an old church with an even bigger tower. I hiked up the church tower for 25Kc and it has a freaking fantastic view of the town. The walk up the tower is interesting. Up old stone steps and then to rickety wooden stairs that are quite steep. The rope ‘railing’ looks questionable but it seems to work. Additionally, I’ll note that you have to bend way down and walk UNDER the giant church bell to continue to the top. Ha ha nice! My Nikon was happy once I got to the top.

Back down in town I continued to walk around for a few hours and have a few beers. I even managed to get a Wi-Fi signal at a restaurant so I started Facebooking. A girl has gotta have her priorities. For those interested, I had garlic soup (oh yeah, good stuff) and roast pork knee on toast with cheese (also yummy). The main beverage in town is Budvar (where American Budweiser gets the name) but this is the ‘original’ stuff and people get pissed if one assumes the Czech and American versions are the same. Budvar is made in Ceske Budejovice which is a bit more south than Tabor. Ask the Google.

I decided to get on the 7pm train back to Prague and I was home by 9pm. Another good day!

Monday September 28

The last day of my long weekend. Did I stay in? Nope. BBQ, baby. It was the ‘Goodbye to Summer’ BBQ so there were many men grilling the meat while we woman foraged for berries and tend the fire. Ha, no not really. But something like that.

A GREAT WEEKEND!I’m going to post a bunch of photos to Facebook rather than here. Photos can only be loaded individually here and they also need to be resized. I want to share a lot of them so it would take a lot of time on my end to do these things. A mass upload on FB is in order. Stay tuned.

Living in a city of over one million has it’s advantages. Living in a European city of over one million has more advantages. Of course, this is coming from my American perspective but still…..

There are often festivals throughout the city. I don’t keep up with these (free) events as much as I should. A budget-minded person should research all the low-cost or freebie options available. Yesterday, I got an SMS from a friend that told me about Refufest. Well actually, the SMS said ‘Music festival at Kampa.’ When she said it was free I put on my shoes and headed out the door.

Since I live in a very central location, I figured I’d walk over; it was a nice day and it’s not that far. Take a look the map.

My place is on the right near Namesti Republiky. Kampa Island is on the west side of the river just below the middle. So, I walked through Old Town Square (which never gets old) and continued through Old Town and across Charles Bridge. However, I really didn’t consider the tourist traffic yesterday. The area in front of the astronomical clock in OTS is always crowded. Everyone stands around and waits for the little guys inside to do their magic. So, navigating around hordes of people can be quite a task. Crossing Charles Bridge is also quite interesting. With added construction on the bridge, that makes for less walking space for the same amount of people. I could have easily taken a tram across and would have been there in less time. Alas, I was on my way to a free event so all is well in the universe.

Kampa Island is a really nice part of town.

It’s located in Mala Strana (Little Quarter) and many embassies are located there. Architecturally, it’s rather unspoiled as many structures have remained largely untouched for years. The Kampa Museum is located there, too. Outside there are a few of David Cerny’s huge creepy slot-faced babies outside. Cerny is a rather famous Czech artist responsible for the babies crawling up Zizkov TV tower as well as the controversial piece, ‘Entropa.’

A real baby for scale!

I joined my friends in the grass near the stage and was able to enjoy the scenery/music/beer. Refufest is (as the name suggests) is a gathering that supports immigrants and refugees. Prague is quite multi-cultural and multi-ethnic so it’s really cool to be able to experience so many different kinds of music/food/people in this city. Living in an isolated tank of ‘white’ isn’t realistic to how the rest of the world lives. There were several tents for various non-profit type organizations that promote the plight of refugees and assist in their transition to new & safer productive lives. There were also a few tents for various vendors selling their wares as well as some areas for miscellaneous baked and fried treats. But, there was only one beer tent. This is Prague, people. We demand more areas for the sale of beer. Twenty-five korun for a beer isn’t too bad; the show was free so I didn’t complain. The kids at the event were all drinking some bright red carbonated drink that I still can’t quite figure out. It looks like one of those drinks that will immediately stain your face and give that ‘Kool-Aid moustache’ look.

Some of the entertainment was more interesting/better than others. I enjoyed the authentic stuff with the people wearing traditional clothing. It can be a bit eye-opening.

The woman on the left was very much feeling the music. I think.

Ok, a Buddhist monk AND fairtrade coffee. Just by posting this image, I declare that I’ve done my part for the day.

Tibetan singer woman….but also notice the person ’sleeping’ in the grass……

No, I wasn’t kidnapped and thrown into a meat freezer. This is the bathroom. Yes, with blue lights and a big scary metal door that slams.

I like the angry/suspicious guy behind Gemma.

Three things here to point out…..yes, a belly dancer, the ’sleeping’ person from before still hasn’t moved but yet now wears a coat and third, the girl who has her underpants exposed for all of Prague.

On the way home, I walked past a night marathon. It was set up right in the middle of OTS and there were lots of people gathered around. A big stage was set up with a giant projection screen. Another reason why I love this town; it was just random but cool.

…and a few more randoms from the day….

The red tent in the middle was the only beer tent!

No, I did not drop acid yesterday.

Note: I broke my small digital camera few weeks ago–the display is cracked and I can’t see a damn thing until I upload the pics. So, now I just take random pics and hope that I’m pointing the camera in the general direction.

I’m doing the classic/lazy copy/paste on this because I wanted to share this here. I sent this to a friend last night and I’m passing it along to all of you (albeit with a few minor edits)….

I just experienced something that for some reason I thought you would appreciate. Sure, many people could appreciate this but I think you would be one of the few who would ‘Oh damn, this IS amazing’ with me on this one…

I just returned from Letna Park. Of course you have no idea what or where Letna Park is located….. Allow me to explain Letna Park and a bit of Prague first. Prague has been built on 7 hills. These hills aren’t vast mountains spanning across echoing valleys but they can certainly make navigation on foot a pain in the ass. In addition to these hills, the Vltava River also cuts through Prague. Two of Prague’s nicknames include The Mother of Cities and The City of a Hundred Spires. Needless to say, this is a very old and a very weathered place. Perhaps one could say that Prague is even the ‘heartbeat’ of what one would consider to be a Gothic city; we’re talking 1K years here. It’s practically everywhere you look and I love that. From the small little architectural details to the street signs and such, the age of Prague is inescapable. But the funny thing is, I don’t want to escape it; I don’t know anyone who does. Here it’s old stuff with a past. But it isn’t just age or something from a history book, it’s years and time and it’s effortlessly timeless. There are so many historic structures and so much history here, both known and unknown, it’s crazy. The darkened alleyways and cobblestone streets have so many stories and secrets to tell. I would like to hear them all.

Anyway, back to Letna Park…. Letna sits on one of the seven hills of Prague. The park is across the Vltava and directionally, it’s N/NE(ish) of the Old Town area. Letna also has a fucking great beer garden. Yes, I said beer garden. Those are fantastically useful words when used separately but when in unison, it’s as if the clouds part and God Himself is speaking to you. Jesus is your bartender now, pull up a stool.  The beer garden at Letna is hugely popular, especially on warm summer nights. That’s when the beer is the best! Sitting in Letna park at a table right by the railing overlooking Prague is just pretty damn amazing. Because of the geography and the short distance across the river, you can see so much; you can see everything and yet it isn’t enough. More is what you want. You can look left and you can look right and see the spires of centuries old buildings all while enjoying a gloriously golden Czech lager. The beer is tall and inviting and calling your name.  It’s cold and bubbly and tastes so very good. You can silently wonder to yourself who has done the same thing in that very spot on a night just like this and be humbled by it all. It’s a moment of GD perfection, if I do say so myself. And although I have been to Letna many times before, the view doesn’t get old. Ever. It’s something new everyday even if only slightly so…. it’s another day added to the calendar of this beautiful and historic place.

Tonight, I was there during twilight. You know, twilight is that that special time of day when the light is just so and everything flickers just a bit, it lends to this etherial kind of glow and mystery. The shades of blue are everywhere; and some hints of orange and red still twinkle in the streetlights below and in the reflections in the windows. I really smiled a big smile when I was taking it all in and I just know you’d have done the same. I’d equate it to one of those, ‘Damn, it’s great to be alive,’ moments.

Sometimes it’s just those silly little things that make us smile.So, I raise my beer (pivo) to you and send a big na zdravi (to your health!) across the big wide pond known as the Atlantic……until we meet again!  After reading that I pose this query: who is ready for a visit?!

COMMIES

I don’t have a television. I don’t have a radio. Well ok, I do have these things but they are packed away in a storage unit that is 4k miles away. As such, I get all my information from this here lovely interwebs. So……

One class (that happens to be in what I’m convinced is a former Communist Doctor’s office) has a radio. Because the class isn’t in an office building that requires a special security pass, I usually arrive early and pre-board any necessary text for a lesson. Since I’m always early, I turn on the radio and get my fill of weekly Czech radio. Of course I cannot understand what the DJs say when they are speaking. I still listen. However, English language music (like all forms of popular culture) has infiltrated the radio waves. Peppered between Czech songs are the ones I can understand. There are of course songs I don’t know and this just isn’t because I’m tragically unhip. It’s the Euro tunage. A few months back I heard a song I liked. I’m a writer of lyrics. But this is not for some deep and soulful purpose; this is only for the task of locating a particular song to download later. Anyway, I came home and downloaded this song. Ha, it is a Romanian pop group. Nice.

Cut to this week….most recently (as in Tuesday of this week) I heard another song I liked. I presume my ear noticed it because the band sounds quite a lot like Depeche Mode*. Camouflage is a German synthpop band from the 80s. I admit it, I’m a sucker for shitty synthpop. Go ahead & rag on it, I deserve the ridicule. It’s just damn catchy music. If you like bad 80s synth, check out these lyrics.

Or here’s the video if you so choose. Does anyone else thing the band has a Matt Damon-faced singer? How does Jason Bourne have time to program his Moog when determining his own identity?

*As an aside…… I found out about this place while reading an article on something else this week. It’s in Estonian but it’s real. Yes, a DM-themed bar. I’m a DM fan but I won’t be making a special trip to Tallinn for this.

LUNCH

There’s a great vegetarian Indian place about 2 blocks from here. (Check the menu for Dhaba Tynska) I’m pretty far from vegetarian on the food scale but Indian food is so tasty that meat really isn’t necessary. This place is literally in the shadows of Tyn Cathedral and insanely cheap. It’s in a courtyard of a sidestreet and unless you knew it was there, you’d walk right by. I love those hidden little gems. Beas offers a rather small menu but the ‘big menu’ is a mere 100KC. Score!

I also tried my first Kombucha. Kombucha is fermented tea. I can confirm that it does not taste like tea but does indeed taste fermented. The taste is really quite odd and off-putting. To be more specific, it rather tastes like something rotting; like something you should have thrown away 2 days ago but were too lazy and hungover. Like many similar foods that taste funky and gross, Kombucha is supposed to have some curative and beneficial qualities thus the reason for ingesting the stuff. If you haven’t heard of Kombucha, it’s not a fancy Euro-fied beverage. I had heard of the stuff in the US and my friend John used to buy it. Just look around in any health food or organic store and they’ll probably have it in their inventory.

Prior to having the stuff though I do recall Tina Fey on Letterman talking about her recent addiction to the dubious beverage. Go to 4:15 to hear her talk about it. She’s pretty spot on in her assessment and commentary.

On the note of Tina Fey, oh how I miss 30 Rock. Too bad I can’t get Hulu over here. Season 3 episodes are damn hard to locate online. Sadness.

CHEESE

If I said pickled cheese, the reaction of any normal person would be one of the following: ick, eew, gross, fuck that, nasty, hell no, etc. However, contrary to these thoughts, pickled cheese is freaking delicious. Pickled Hermelin is a staple bar food here in the C.R.. I was hesitant to try it for the very reason any normal person would hesitate to try the stuff. But I can report with great glee that pickled hermelin is the bomb. It’s not pickled in the traditional sense of being pickled. I usually associate tart, tangy, sour and vinegary with pickled foods. The hermelin is packed in a jar with various herbs, spices and other goodies such as garlic, peppers, juniper berries, capers, black pepper, onion, and oil. Basically you just let the stuff sit and work it’s magic in a jar. That easy. When the stuff is ready, you smear it all over some hearty Czech bread (Sumava is suggested) and you have a wonderful treat. I loved the stuff so much that I went to Tesco and bought a big plastic jar of the stuff. By no means is a 60Kc purchase of cheese going to be the world’s finest but it will surely satisfy my new cheese obsession.

Voila!

WORK

Here’s an example of the boring stuff I was researching last week to do a lesson at Kaufland. It’s at their logistics center in the Czech countryside. The place is huge and cumbersome and you can see the facility from kilometers away. It’s kind of one of those, ‘Oh shit, what the hell IS that over there,’ moments.

You can imagine the riveting buckets of information one can locate about grocery stores and related vocabulary. It’s rather boring and uninteresting material to do for 90 minutes.

NEWS

While surfing around on links from Reddit (my new go-to source aggregator), I saw the words penis and laser so naturally I did a little tap of my track pad and off I went. But what struck me as more tragic and interesting than the actual article was the sidebar. Yes, those are all associated news blurbs related to penis trauma this week. So this makes me query, ‘Does some dude behind a monitor aggregate articles on genitalia?’ Interesting gig. Is this a WTF moment? Or perhaps even a FTW? You decide.

ADVERTISING

What? Where’s Tom Cruise when you need him? How many level II Thetans approve of this message?

RANDOM PICS OF THE WEEK

Letna Park and an invader

Find the pivo!

Church at Strahov Monastery

Reminder: I live here

In the Czech Republic the first of May is a big holiday. Schools and offices are closed and everyone gets to enjoy a day off. Also, it’s a day when Czechs are quite amorous and expressive of their love and libidos. You see, the first day of May is also kind of the Czech version of our Valentine’s Day. According to tradition, you must kiss your lover under a blossoming cherry tree on May first and you will be granted love/luck/prosperity. Frankly, I’m not quite sure if all three of those are true but you get my point. So, a bunch of us headed up the Ujezd funicular to the Petrin where there is a nice park and plenty of cherry trees.

Petrin has a big observation tower that looks quite like the Eiffel Tower. As a whole though, the locale in its entirety is called Petrin Hill (as Prague is a city of hills) so there are great views of the city from there. I cannot confirm this as yesterday was my first trek to Petrin and my ass wasn’t about to hoof it up the tower. I’ll certainly do it another time but I had already walked enough this week and I just wasn’t in the mood to wait in line and get all sweaty when my priorities were elsewhere. Where else could my priorities have been? Ah well, one of the political parties here sponsored some kind of even at Petrin and thusly sold beer and klobasa (I supppose it’s like a Kielbasa–just a big damn sausage that is served with thick sliced Czech bread and spicy mustard). There were also miscellaneous treats for kids (cookies, marzipan confections, etc.) as well as a few of those stupid bouncy-type rooms where kids can toss their lunch onto a plastic vibrating surface. But, going back to the beer and klobasa thing…this was by far the cheapest beer I’ve experienced in this country. The sausage and beer were only 10Kc each. Yeah, EACH. That’s about fifty cents. They WANT you to drink it. It’s an offense to the beer Gods if you do not do so.

So, going back to the Czech day of love and romance and all things sex. I actually really like the idea of kissing your lover under a tree and somehow it guaranteeing continued love and happiness. However, the skeptic in me realizes that’s just a silly tradition but at least it gives people a way to make out as much as possible. That said, Czechs are very open with affection. Much more so than anyone would ever be in the US. Sure, there’s the occasional kiss and hand holding but nothing to the degree that I’ve seen here. There are more than enough make-out sessions on the metros and trams. But they don’t stop on public transport, these folks will be kissy and grabby in most places. Similarly, this openness to sex and love is part of the Czech culture; this behavior is not unique to May first. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, this is a rather sexually liberated country and they have little issue with sexuality, discussions of sex, prostitution, or pornography. So, knowing this, I was fully expecting a flat-out park sex incident yesterday at Petrin. Color me disappointed when all we saw was a bit of spooning and a guy engaged in some kind of yoga/stretchy thing. In fact, the afternoon was low-key which was quite the opposite of what I was expecting. I suppose I was likening it to the ‘if you can shoot up on the sidewalk and not get arrested’ scenario, then why can’t you copulate with your burly hairy backed man lover in the park?

I uploaded some random videos I’ve snapped with my cheap point & shoot over the past few months. Enjoy. Note: they are out of sequence and I didn’t bother to edit them or make them more interesting via iMovie.

On a final note, today is Derby Day and I’m missing it. Something tells me though that my friends back in Kentucky will be having great time!

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.

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.