Praha, Pivo, Prosim

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 had to go there with the lame title. It’s Halloween!

It’s been a productive day thus far. Many people like to be lazy on Saturdays. I like to get shit done. That’s how I roll. Up at 730, two loads of laundry done by 9, shopping at the mall and the supermarket done by 1030. Cooked lunch and having a glass of wine by 130. Good times.

Whole roaster chickens were on sale (AKCE! One of my favorite Czech words) at Albert today so I had to buy one. Roasted chicken is one of my favorite foods and roast chicken skin? Sweet Mother of God–it’s my crack. I knew I wanted to make a chicken salad today so I threw some random things together. Here’s what I did…..

Mix olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, marjoram, rosemary & oregano in a bowl. Rub it all over the bird. Stuff the bird with a cut up onion and an apple. Cook your bird and baste periodically.

I like cucumber and tomatoes so I used those today. Chop to the desired size. I also had an extra onion left so I decided to use that. Since raw onion isn’t one of the greatest things to me, I sauteed it in some olive oil and salt. After the onion started to brown, I added a chopped clove of garlic and a splash of red wine.

Assemble the salad and dress with your favorite dressing. Since I’m an American living in Europe, I used Hidden Valley Ranch. Trust me, it’s a gold mine here as Ranch is unavailable. I have my Mom to thank for shipping me goodies.

Pour yourself a glass of wine and bon appetit!

Here are some random pictures for your viewing pleasure!

The above were taken at the Wine & Cheese Festival in Old Town Square. Ironically, we only saw one place that was selling a few spices and there was no wine to be found anywhere. Boo!

RelfBowl ‘09: Letna Park–Go Big or Go Home

Kutna Hora, Czech Republic

The Sedlec Ossuary–everyone knows about the bone church! Wikipedia says it’s made with 40-70k skeletons.

MUSIC

In a bit irony…. as I was briskly walking to the bathroom in a mall the other day I noticed that the theme song to Chariots of Fire was playing. It seems like you can never really walk fast ENOUGH when you really have to take care of business.

ADAPTATION

In other news, I can report that my American English is now adapting to the use of British English. I’ll provide some examples: college –> university, bathroom –> WC, basement –> cellar, vacation –> holiday, line –> queue

Yes, I am become Euro-fied.

FOOD

In other news I am currently making a delicious American-style breakfast. It’s 1pm but I want it! I found a nice ’slab’ of English bacon yesterday so I had to buy it. The ‘regular’ English bacon here is sliced but it’s in squares. The slab I bought has to be sliced by yours truly but I can slice nice thick strips if I so choose. I so chose. I was all set to take snapshots of my delicious creation but since the bacon finished first, I could not resist eating said bacon. It was just there all pretty and greasy and glistening on the plate. Plus, cold bacon ain’t so good. Therefore, there will be no photo of my breakfast. The hash browns are cooking right now and I’ll make some cheesy scrambled eggs after. Ah yes…..BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS!

And on a note of personal preference, those of you who prefer crispy bacon…well, you are doing a disservice to the bacon. If it crumbles, it’s not good! Greasy, floppy bacon is the only way to go. I feel very strongly about this.

PICTURES

I promise I’ll get new pictures here soon. The Sedlec Ossuary and a day trip to Kutna Hora await your eyes!

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.

No, I’m not sick but I am bad. Bad for not blogging lately. Shit. Don’t hate me, readers. I gots things to do, man!

My parents visited last week but I’m in the middle of planning out a workshop for tomorrow s I opromise to give a more detailed update this weekend. I’ll even include pics because that’s just how freaking amazing I am. Modest, too…..

I went back to the SAPA market yesterday and ate some lunch that I still have no idea about the meat within the dish. That is, what it was or could have been. I suppose it could have been dog but let’s hope not. On normal circumstances, I don’t usually allow my mind to wander to such culturally different options but considering the odor and smell of what I ate, I’m not entirely sure there wasn’t a domesticated house pet in my lunch. My fear of being taken to the back somewhere and beaten by small Asian men prohibited me from snapping a quick pic of said meal.

I can’t even quite recollect what the dish was called so I’ll do my best to describe what it was. In appearance alone, it looked like Pho. A big steaming bowl of golden broth with noodles and ‘meat’ as well as a plate of herbs & things to mix in at my leisure. Of course, as per usual there were the condiments of Sriacha, hot chilis/oil and some hot garlic as well that was in a jar next to the other condiments. I also ordered a beer (25Kc) and it arrived unopened. The waiter brought me a glass afterwards as well as a bottle opener. The work was to be done by me I suppose. The food arrived in less than 5 minutes which was bonus. I like that. I was fully prepared to fiddle with my iCal on the iPod but alas, my plans of killing time were dashed by quick food arrival. The bowl of steaming ingredients had an odd odor. The ‘meat’ was all fried and doing the backstroke across the top of the piping hot liquid. Even 24 hours later, I’m still not sure on the meat part. At first I thought it was pork and then I thought it was fish. I know, one has hooves while the other has fins. Actually, I think ‘it’ was a mix of both but the ‘kind’ of fish it may have been was a mystery. All the little food markets at SAPA have tanks outside with barely fish (catfish, carp, not sure?). So, by using my powers of deduction, I’ll say that the fish was from one of those establishments. My lunch actually tasted better than it smelled which I think is perhaps a bit odd. Smells and tastes are usually associated with each other and one can usually ascertain a taste by how something smells.

The end result? Well, I’m not dead which is a bonus. And if it was dog, cat, or hamster, it was consumed. You make the call.

I’m headed to Dresden, Germany, in the morning. For those unfamiliar, I suggest you Google the Schengen Zone. As a current Schengen resident, I get to do all kinds of fun bullshitty stuff associated with making me ‘legal’ here. Although the process had already begun, I get to do a quickie day trip to the Czech consulate tomorrow to submit my visa application. If all goes according to plan, and this government decides not to evict me, I get to go back to Dresden at a later date and pick up my approved visa. Then…. I get to hit up the Foreign Police and ‘activate’ my visa. This is all AFTER I’ve obtained a zivnostensky list (trade license). The z-list (as they are abbreviated here) was only acquired following the acquisition of a notarized criminal record check, a signed affidavit from my landlord permitting me to set up ‘business’ at this address and also an additional document from the building owner. Hooray for diplomacy and bureaucratic redtape. Goody goody gumdrops!

Perhaps I’ll blog again from the train to Dresden. Photos and videos of my journey to Deutschland to come at a later date.

Here’s just something that cracked me up. I saw a link for a foam creation light fixture. Yes, really. Anyway, some guy made the following light fixture from foam pieces that are shipped with Apple computers. In the actual instructions, he mentioned that he used low-wattage bulbs so I supposed that reduces/eliminates the pesky worry of safety and fire. Anyway, when I was looking at the pic of the fixture in the office, I noticed that the office has some of the most hilarious framed ‘art’ I’ve seen. I love it and I want to work there. Where can I buy these?

**Oh also, I went to the Prague Zombie Walk on Saturday. In short, a very cool event. Lots of blood, and moaning through the Old Town area. Good times. Stay tuned.

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.  

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…..

WARNING: non-sequiturs and a bit of stream of consciousness writing below

10a So, I was up at 5a today. Boo.It’s 10a now and I am sitting in the Detroit Metro airport. I can’t get a wireless connection here so I’m typing this in TextEdit. I’d rather use a pretty word processing application but I don’t even think this machine came with any of that software loaded. WTF?

If any of you have been through this airport (Jayne!), it’s actually much nicer than it was 10+ years ago. I am sitting in front of the funky water fountain in the the main terminal and the Northwest overhead tram is parked and picking some peeps up. Since I’m here so GD early before my trans-Atlantic flight, the flight info is not yet displayed on the departures screens throughout the airport. Sure, I could ask what gate to go to but it’s super early and it would be stupid to be sitting there with my thumb up my ass all damn day. While I’m usually quite good at said maneuver, I’d rather not inflict such pain on small children that happen to be passing by. Besides, it’s a ritual that I have a beer in an airport. Granted, it will probably cost me $25 but whatever. I am unemployed and homeless; what else am I supposed to do?

And by the way, there are birds in here. Yes, birds. I guess they like hanging out by the water and the trees. There is some irony of getting shit on in Detroit.

Oh, and as expected I had to pay a fee for having one of my checked bags be over the weight limit set by NW. I was only 12 pounds over–does anyone want to hazard a guess at how much that cost? Ninety farking dollars. Yeah! I was assuming it would be more fifty-ish but my assumption was quickly proven wrong at the ticket counter. WAH!

According to the NW inflight mag, I’ll get treated to a Kiera Knightley movie on the flight later. Hoo-fucking-ray. She was alright in ‘Bend It Like Beckham,’ but what’s the deal with her doing all these Jane Austen-y type Brit flicks? Ok yeah, I get it; you’re English already. Next.

Some douchebag is pacing behind me talking on the phone about Costa Rica & Hong Kong. He’s going on about how CR doesn’t observe Daylight Saving. Fascinating conversation, man.

1123a Jesus, it’s only been 90 minutes. I have since relocated to another spot but nonetheless time is going by slowly. For those curious, I ate a delicious McMuffin purchased from the Golden Arches. As industrial as their products seem to be, they are tasty. One cannot deny this. I’m curious to know how different the Czech brand McD’s will be. Shitty? I hope not. The fries were made by the hands of Little Baby Jesus. This much I know to be true.

Sucks I can’t hop on freebie wireless here. I can pay $8 and get service for the day but that’s kind of ridiculous. A day without Facebook is going to be a difficult one but I think I can cope. I have other methods of self-entertainment. In fact, I just made a really stupid video on iMovie.

 The flight to Amsterdam isn’t even boarding until 3pm. God. Three and a half hours more of sitting. My ass will be sore. A full day’s worth of sitting ain’t good for my delicate keister. At least it’s almost noon so I can start drinking. Too bad I had to pack all the little bottles of liquor my sister gave me. Otherwise, I’d toss one down my gullet. That’s how i roll.More typey after Miller time.

115p Two Sam Adams Winter Lagers later….Two beers including tip? Twenty bucks.

I finally found my gate info but I’m 2 gates down because everyone else had the same idea about plugging in and charging up their products. I gotta have the juice, man

422p Up, Up and Away.. my beautiful balloon…In the air from Detroit, flight time 7 hr 15 min to Amsterdam.There is a screaming/crying baby a few rows back. Now would be a good time for those noise reducing headphones.

Ok, the woman in the seat directly in front of me just put her seat all the way back thus forcing my tray and laptop into my fat lard middle. Fun. I think she’s a stupid European, anyway.

For anyone interested the distance between DTW and AMS is 3900 miles.More later. I want food now.

645pMan, these people are really quite efficient with the beverage and meal service. It was all complete within an hour and the cabin lights were quickly dimmed. As everyone knows airplanes are not the most comfortable places certainly when one is considering the option of sleep. Although the seat next to me is vacant and this row is all mine, the constraints of comfort (or lack thereof) are something I am contending with. My attempt at sleep was nil so I’m updating the blog entry.

According to the inflight information provided on the handy little personal viewing screens, we are somewhere over NE Canada–around Newfoundland, I think. It’s certainly remote as I see no lights for any cities below. Damn. Canada must be a cold and boring place tonight. But, I’ve heard Toronto is a cool ethnically diverse city. Wouldn’t mind visiting there sometime. Of course, Vancouver would be cool too. If I hadn’t been doing this move, I was considering my next solo trip for the summer of ‘09… fly into Portland, hang out for a bit, rent a car and drive up the NW coast through to Seattle and then on to Vancouver. Instead, I’m having an awesome European adventure which frankly, will probably be better than a 5 day domestic trip.

915p Ok, again my attempts at sleeping on this thing are futile. Normally, I am neither a light sleeper nor one who has difficulty falling asleep. I’m far from an insomniac so what gives? I attribute this to the uncomfortableness of trying to sleep while sitting up. Grrr.

Someone just sprayed perfume. Ok lady, this is an enclosed metal tube that we’re all stuck in for 8+ hours. Try keeping your whore juice to a minimum when in close proximity to others for extended periods.

Geography update–checking the digitized flight map, I’m now somewhere over the Atlantic between Iceland & Ireland.

Distance traveled: 2950 milesOutside temp: -48FMPH: 585Altitude: 40,421ft

Perfume lady is at it again. Somebody reeks of vodka. Yes!I

t’s going to be difficult to get used to a 24-hour clock. And this metric thing and temperature conversions are going to constantly weigh on me.

Friday 349p (Prague time) Screaming baby returned. With a vengeance. Seriously, that kid was out of control and not really even ‘crying.’ Bad parenting.

My flight arrived in Amsterdam earlier than expected and when going through customs & security I got a thorough frisking. No seriously, we’re talking thorough. When I went through security in Knoxville, I took off my belt & shoes per US screenings. I removed the belt in Amsterdam but somehow I set the damn detector off. When I was pulled to the side I got probably a full 60 second frisking/groping. I say groping because the inspector seriously had some hands in the pants action as well as serious cuppage of boobs. It was a bit of a disconcerting experience.

Schipol International Airport has some of the best looking employees. This includes the woman who felt me up. To me, it looked like she should have been selling fragrances behind a counter rather than patting down shifty-eyed travelers. All the airport cops were young, hot and toting guns. Of course the gun thing isn’t something I’m accustomed to seeing.

I hopped in a tram that took me far away from the main terminal to my KLM flight bound for Prague. I arrived at 850a and quickly got my gigantic fucking bags and headed out to wait for my pick-up.We drove right through Prague and over the river and I could see from a distance the big castle on the hill.

Hooray!I finally arrived at Biscupcova 3, Praha 3 around 10ish this morning. Oh and the street addresses come after the street name. Google baby, Google. This particular area of town is the ‘Brooklyn’ of Prague.

Since I hadn’t exchanged my US currency at the airport, I knew that was a priority. I changed some money at the bank with a teller who I didn’t exchange courtesies because I don’t speak Czech! With today’s exchange rate, I have 4,183 Crowns. Translated 192USD.

I also went to the corner market-sorry, I don’t know the Czech word just yet. This store is literally about 30 feet from the door of the building and they have various beverages (incl. beer & soda) as well as fruits & dried goods. I wouldn’t necessarily say the contents of the store are like a typical convenient store in the US but the concept is similar. Again, I had no verbal exchange with the woman at the register. I bought a big carbonated water -orange flavored if you are curious as well as a Czech beverage which I had read about. Kofola looks like a regular Coke or Pepsi. Although I try to stay away from caffeine, I decided to get something to help me stay awake and adjust my internal clock. Although this stuff looks like a regular ‘pop,’ it tastes vaguely of Jagermeister. It is rather herbal & medicinal tasting. It’s not horrible, it’s just different.

715pSo, my roommate (a temporary one as she is going to her own flat tomorrow) is a woman who has already been through this program and is now working here in Prague. Nice! She’s given me the heads up about some things so I appreciate that. Strange though is that we have much in common in the ways of where we have both lived. Before she came here she was living in Louisville; she’s also lived in upstate NY but by far the strangest is the Ohio connection. I mentioned that I had also lived in Cleveland. As it turns out we both lived in Chagrin Falls and actually attended the same high school. Mind you, this is a high school of less than 400 enrollment. And, we both left CF after our sophomore years. Her parents still live there and actually they live in a condo between my old church and the high school!

I went back to the little mini-mart a few moments ago to get some more stuff. See photo below. Come on, you knew the beer was coming soon! I’m having some of this tea right now and it’s actually quite good. While I prefer caff-free stuff, I can’t read the packaging so oh well. If I get all amped up, I’ll know I bought the wrong stuff. The ‘Chipsletten’ are some kind of Euro Pringle that are super salty. Me likey. And yes, it’s all about the carbs tonight. Good times, good times.

The little bottles of booze my sister gifted me have also been unwrapped from the rolled-up Martha Stewart ninja style packing and I am proud to say, none of my shit broke. My work was proven effective after all!

Sorry that I have nothing more interesting to report but I’m going to Tesco tomorrow so stay tuned!

Clicky for bigger.

Sorry this entry wasn’t very interesting but once I get out on foot more, I’ll have more fun details & photos to post.

Oh and the random pic of a building is just some residential building a few blocks away. I don’t know what it’s called but I thought I’d throw it in there.

For those of you that know me, the answer to the above question is probably yes. Why? Because I’m making reference to this move with great frequency. But this move is a HUGE deal for me thus it occupies much of my thoughts. So on that front I apologize and you’ll only have to hear about it for a few more weeks and then I’ll be blogging from across the pond. 

Four weeks from today I’ll be on day two of my European/Iron Curtain adventure. It will be Saturday, February 7, 2009. Yes, I really do know the exact date.

I have packed up no more than I had a few days ago and I’m alright with that fact.There is still the wish that I had a bit more done for the mere desire of living in a slightly less unorganized domicile.

Updates are still to come when something more interesting happens. Until that time, I’m going to drink my beer and be a Facebook whore. If anyone out there wants to ‘friend’ me, please do so as I will probably welcome the request. However, if you do not know me personally and you still want to FB, give me some personal info and perhaps we can exchange mails and then I’ll honor your request. I’m by no means trying to be bitchy on this front but I’ve never revealed my last name here so keeping a bit of anonymity here is something I’d like to maintain. My name isn’t a secret but you know, the paparazzi are just an evil nuisance of my daily life. Oh I keed, I keed….