Long Weekend

Me Serving at the Pilsner factory.
Me Sharing a brew and a sausage with a plastic guy at the factory.

So Thursday was the last day of classes until this coming Wednesday when I'll be having the rest of my midterms. Most of the people went out of town this weekend, and although I was considering doing such, I decided to stay around here instead. I had planned on going to 2 breweries, maybe even 3, but relaxation weighed in and I only ended up going to Plzen. I'll discuss that later though. Anyways since I didn't end up doing a brewery tour, I figured I should at least try lots of new beers, and so far, I have had 14 new types of beer in the past few days (meaning I have had at least 7 liters of beer, even though the full amount is closer to 20-25 since Thursday). I got these at Tesco, which is basically a Walmart with a giant Sunset underneath it. It was my first time there and was really fun. I had so many choices, which I'm really not used to at stores here, that it took me forever to decide what I wanted. All of the new Czech beers I have had are delicious, although some not as fantastic as the rest. Honorable mentions: Bernard, Zlaty Bazant, and Svijany. Least preferential of the newbies: Zlatopromen and Samson.[this picture is actually from the Pilsner factory that shows how many varieties have been produced by SAB, the comglomerate company that owns the brewery, since 1999. It just reminds me of my choices at Tesco]
So Thursday night I went to dinner with Joey and his mom and grandmother because they were visiting for the weekend. We ate at the fantastic buffet at the Intercontinental, and were pleasantly pleased. I then just went and hung out at the dorms with Joe. Casual night but fun nonetheless.
Friday and Saturday days were both filled with working out, decent cooking, and walking around Prague. On Saturday, I even found avocadoes from Israel and felt obliged to buy them; they were really good of course. Back to Friday, however. For dinner, I tried going with some guys to 'U Medvidku,' a restaurant/hotel/bar/micro-brewery that I found online that is supposedly rated as one of the top places in Prague. They have like 20 types of Czech beer and make there own 20% beer, which we were really excited for; that is, until we saw we wouldn't be able to eat there. We ended up going next door where there was an opening if we were able to finish our dinners in under 45 minutes [lunches in the CR take usually at least an hour 15]. All this meant was that we got served really quickly, which included my delicious bread bowl beef gulash that reminded me of Panera. We met up at M1, a real expensive and nice club in Prague. It was very difficult to find and I wish I had known how expensive (so I could drink more before), but it was ana absolute rage. I even saw Lawrence and his basketball teammates there, who were celebrating after their victory earlier in the night. Saturday night was far from the same extent of celebration unfortunately. Mom, please skip the next paragraph.

[I'm serious mom]
The night started off with me leaving my wallet on my desk before going out to Kross Club. Kross Club was much better than it had been last time (see previous post about really weird Czech people with lots of metal in their bodies), and I hung out with a few Emory people. I feel that I should mention now that to get there, although a tram/metro pass is necessary, it must not be showed every time. This meant that I just assumed that my pass was in my wallet in my pocket. Google Maps claims that Kross Club is 5km north of me, but that is going on the highway, not taking trams and metroes (that don't take straight paths always). I somehow managed to buy 2 drinks at Kross Club, which further convinced me that I had my wallet with me. I am almost positive that a friend bought me one drink, and I have no idea about the other. 15 minutes later, I noticed that I did not have my wallet and absolutely freaked out. I asked the bartenders, all of my friends, random Czech people, and even searched the bathroom- despite not having used it. I was a mess, and unfortunately at that moment, began to feel sick too.
Knowing that I was beyond my limit, I figured it was a good idea to leave, which was definitely the right decision. Everyone else was going to another club in another 30 minutes, so I just parted from them. At this point I called home to cancel my cards and thus prevent any credit card fraud. I then got on a night tram, all of which come twice an hour, and headed to Lazarska, the hub of all night trams that would connect me home. As hard as the ride was, I made sure to stay awake and make it home. Unfortunately, 2 stops before Lazarska, I faded. I faded hard and I faded fast, and only when I got jabbed in the ribs by a policeman's flashlight did I resume my rememberance of the remainder of the night. Long story short from here, I made it home, despite being very far away when that happened, despite it being 35 degrees, despite not having a wallet. I then found my wallet, called my parents again and luckily still have working cards, and even saw my friends again when I re-made it to Lazarska (that's how long it took me to get there).(gate at Plzen factory] Saturday of course led to a long and hard Sunday wakeup, which was accomplished without much ease. I hurried over to the train station and met up with my friends on the train so that we could head over to Plzen! Plzen is the beer capital of the CR, and the CR has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the world. So basically, Plzen is Mecca. Plzen is also the founding city of the Pilsen style of beer, which includes Pilsner-Urquell (the original), Gambrinus, Kozel, and a few more less known companies. When we got there, we immediately headed over to the brewery, despite not meaning to. I think the alcohol in my blood was attracted to the alcohol in the factory, similar to a compasses magnetic polarization, and pointed us straight there. We then walked over to a restaurant that served the best Pilsner I've ever had and some ridiculously good meat (I've stopped trying to figure out what I'm eating if it doesn't say chicken in it).After a fantastic meal, we walked around the city. Highlights include St. Bartolemu's Cathedral, the tallest in the CR. At 102 meters, it took forever to reach the top. I am uploading pictures right now for you guys to see on flickr, but the steps were usually about a quarter the width of my shoe's length, and the stairs were slanted at an angle steeper than a ladder against a wall. It was also really tiring after the 10th floor, which is when the climb got most difficult. At times I was on all fours - despite climbing vertical - and other times I had to bend down so much that my backpack was hitting the ceiling. I also had to climb over beams, around columns, and under ledges, all the while barely having a handrail as we ascended into the sky. At the top, it was really pretty and you could see well past the city limits, in addition to the big square at the base of the cathedral and the nice synagogue a few blocks away. Most of the ladders were also just wide enough for 1 person by the way, so coming back down was like going through a one way tunnel and required lots of waiting. I was real impressed, and it was the perfect thing to do before going to the brewery (possibly the only thing too). The brewery tour was really cool. Some things to note: barley has a terrible texture, not much flavor, but luckily no after taste. Malt is at least edible [made from the barley], and hops are attrotious. Not only do they have a horrific taste, they have a lingering aftertaste that kept reminding me that I needed to wash the flavor out of my mouth a half hour later. Pilsner also uses the same methods that they did 150 years ago, minus no longer using massive oak barrels. They only use those for the beer on tour, which tastes better than Pilsner draft or bottled. I am really not that much of a fan of Pilsner, especially when compared economically and gastronomically to other Czech beers, but the Pilsner in Plzen is definitely better. And it definitely wasn't mental, because everyone agreed with me, and it looks different too.
So I read the whole train back - a new book, The Guide, which is my first Indian novel - and ate KFC for the first time here. I have no idea why the Czechs love it so much, but they do, and it is pretty good over here. It's not too expensive and they are great with chicken in this country. I then went back to the dorms and hung out with Joey and friends nearby. Props to dad for meeting the Israeli ambassador at AIPAC, which I was informed of at this point.
Today has been a real lazy day, and the fact that the sky matches my walls, making it difficult to see where the windows actually are, makes it even less likely that I did anything. With a long, intoxicated lifestyle all weekend, I decided to spend all day lazying and lamping. I have thus watched a ton of TV today and am going to yoga soon. Hopefully the included pictures help a little, but the rest are on flickr as previously stated. The video below is me walking around the top of the Cathedral, so you can see how small the 4th largest city in the CR, Plzen, really is.

PS: since returning from yoga, I have seen 2 absolutely out of place objects. The first was a Rolls Royce driving down the street. I think it was lost on its way to Luxembourg or Germany or something, because finding an Audi or BMW is rare enough. The second was a unicycler. Not just any unicycler, but a guy on a mountain-uni (I'm not sure if that's the proper name for a unicycle with mountain tires) at 730pm in a pitch black park. I'm not sure which I should have thought to be more out of place.

I'm in Love with a Hobbit

Whether you've been to Prague or are planning on it, you either have or will notice - subconsciously or consciously - that none of the people, whether students are workers, ever work or study. It's quite the weird phenomenon, and I've heard other students on my program comment on it as well. I do have proof of this, both for supposed students and whimsical workers. As I have previously stated, my study center is in the historic district of Vysehrad, and being a historic district, there are always tours flocking around; one day, I even helped a British coupe find their way from Old Town to Vysehrad because I was on my way to class. Anyways, in addition to tourists buzzing around Vysehrad, there are class tours there every day too. I'm not talking about once a week one high school sends their juniors to finally see a historic area or something. I'm referring to every single day of the school week, whether rain or shine, there are between 20 and 100 students, somewhere between 1st and 12th grade, cramming into the ancient walls of this rebuilt neo-Baroque fortress. I think this is ample proof that students don't go to school. As far as older people, there are ALWAYS people on the trams. I can understand people going in the morning to work, and people at midday going to lunch, and of course people coming home from work in the evening. But why would some one be dressed up at 2pm? Or what about 1030? Every day, every tram? That can't be a coincidence. And I don't just mean 1 or 2 people on the trams. When we are working on conditioning in architecture class on Wednesdays (sprinting to a tram), we can often barely fit onto a tram because they are so crowded. Perhaps people just enjoy dressing up and pretending to go to work. If not, I have no idea what they are doing, unless they are getting paid to ride the trams constantly.
Anyways, I had 2 midterms today, in Czech and Psychoanalysis. I figured my Czech teacher had told us everything that would be on the exam, and anything she hadn't, she would give us the answer in class. I also figured that my AP Psych professor had prepared me well enough sophomore year of high school to pass a test about Freud. Surprisingly, I was right on both.
I guess our teacher felt bad after only giving my class 15 minutes of review yesterday because she gave her following class the full 50 minutes to go over exam material. Luckily, roommate Robert is in that room, so he gave me everything that she failed to forward to us. Since some of our examples were the exact same, and she had read off a piece of paper for both, we figured - correctly - that she was reading off of the test. After 15 minutes of review last night, and 15 minutes of review on my walk to class, I was incredibly prepared surprisingly: especially since I suck at Czech. The answers that I was iffy about were checked over by my teacher, and she either told me what to change them to, or informed me they were correct. An example of this: each question of section 1 had a sentence which needed a past or present verb filled in the blank from 5 choices of verbs. I had narrowed 1 down to 3 choices, and wrote what I thought to be the best answer. I then asked what 1 of the other 2 possible verbs meant, and she responded, "don't worry about that, you're answers right." I also had her check over my short essay which was quite helpful, and review it before turning it in. In case you think she just glimpses over each persons test upon submitting the exam, you were wrong. The guy who turned his test in before me say for a minute while she looked at it, then she passed it back to him when she found it a mistake. I did great.
I then went to lunch and spent 17 krown on a bowl of soup [the dollar is up to 19.5 krown!!!] and 75 krown on a plate of mystery rolled meat [i think pork wrapped around cooked salami, onion, and garlic], potato dumplings, and a delicious portion of my favorite, kraut. For an additional 21 krown, I got a 1/2 liter of beer. I then walked back to the study center, and instead of studying for my next midterm, researched Czech recipes, breweries around the country, and meaningless trivia. With 15 minutes left before the exam, I opened my notes and studied. Since I only need a 60 to pass the class, I figured if I got over a 50 on this test I could pull it up. My guess: at least a 75 if not an 80, or possibly even a 90 [if he can't read my writing and figures the answers are right]. It was amazing. I then proceeded to ignore everything my teacher said as I further researched breweries and talked to my mom online. Luckily, here is my professor's quote from after his lecture: "i hope youre not too confused by all this, but it doesn't really matter because we aren't going to discuss it much or use it at all and I don't think I'm going to quiz you on it. so if you're just a little confused it's still OK." After that, he started discussing something that I actually knew and he asked me questions for 5 minutes so I got mad participation points before running off home and talking to the parents. I have since done an hour of exercise which killed me [partially the intensity and partially the lack of previous exercise] that even included 3 sets of 8 pullups on a 4x8 piece of wood - a new record. I am about to shower and go meet Joey and Aunt Julie for dinner at the Intercontinental, and I feel really bad that I can't shave before seeing them, but I just don't have enough time. Hopefully they'll forgive me.

Stir Fry Helps, Make Weekend Plans

I think I've already mentioned that Czech babies are among the cutest - if not the absolute cutest - in the world. Part of it is that it's autumn so all of their parents dress them up in bundles of mini-clothes which makes them look even cuter. I'm pretty sure that I've also mentioned that Czech babies are a dying breed; they are being replaced by dogs. Although you may expect the dogs to be some of the cutest too, they are far from it. In fact yesterday I was almost attacked by a German Shepherd. Also, in order to replace childhood obesity, the Czechs have invested in canine obesity, which is somewhat funny and grotesque simultaneously: of course without beauty. However, similar to with their children, the Czechs dress up their dogs. Now, I know we have all laughed upon seeing a dog in clothes, but how many people have seen dogs in socks? How about dogs in T-shirts when its warm out? What about dogs in sweaters when its chilly? I still think the best thing I've seen thus far has been a man walking his dog in the rain. He of course had an umbrella, and his dog of course had a rain coat. That's right; not a poncho, not a rain slicker, but an actual rain jacket. It was hilarious.
So today I was going to go to lunch at an underground cafeteria [similar to where the free breakfasts are held]. These are just random buildings with small signs on them, usually one word with a 'u' in front of them that most non-Czechs can't find. This is also known as real Czech fast food, and is pretty cheap and very good. Being 12:30, there was a line up the stairs and out the door, so I went home and made a sandwich, an acceptable yet unfortunate runner up.
My first out class of the day, Art and Architecture, consisted of walking around Vysehrad. Vysehrad is the name of the castle that the CIEE study center is located in, as well as a few other Charles University buildings. It is an old castle, and according to myth, the origins from pre-historic times of the Czech state. I also live a mere 15 minute walk from it. Despite all that, CIEE thought it essential to tour us around all of Prague except Vysehrad. It's a pretty cool castle and we walked through the pitch black hidden passages between the external wall of the fortress and the external wall of the compound [a 4 foot wide passage between the 2]. Afterwards, my other outclass [as much as class 4 days a week sucks, having most of my Wednesdays be walk around Prague is pretty nice, and I only have 1 class plus Czech on TTH] went to the Prague Museum of Art. Although not as awesome as the Prague Museum of Decorative Art [pretty much interior design], it was still interesting and had some real sweet things that would look great in our living room. Favorite item: the first lazyboy. Being smarter than the current company, this lazyboy had no need to recline; instead it was already in a reclined position. Imagine a supersoft lazyboy that never needs to become a couch... sweet. It also has massive armrests that could balance a tray if you wanted to eat while watching a game. What a life.
Similar to my mom at 3am every night, in class everyday while not doing anything I search for travel fares. It is farely cheap to get around most of Europe, and I was thus planning on going through Bratislava for a day before hitting either Vienna or Budapest. I have since learned that my mom wants to go to Budapest, and that I don't really want to spend a ton of time in Vienna yet, so I have saught other plans. I also still know people going there in case I want to meet up half way through our long upcoming weekend [Monday Tuesday off]. In place, I think I am going to be going on a beer tour of the Czech Republic!
CR has the highest consumption of beer per capita in the world. At 160 litres per person per year, most people here have at least a beer a day (the number of people used includes children, so adults, including 90 year old women, drink more than this). To meet the people's demands, the Czech Republic has literally hundreds if not thousands of breweries. Although they only have like 10 major breweries, they also have like 100 minor ones, which includes micro-breweries, independent breweries, brewery hotels, and more. Then there are individual brewers, restaurants, and in-home breweries, which basically means I'd have a real busy weekend trying to get everywhere. One special part of the weekend: the trip to the beer spa! Supposedly a great hangover cure (we will be going after attending the Pilsner factory), the Chodovar brewery and beer spa gives you beer while bathing you in it. I'm excited. These places are both in western Bohemia, so hopefully we'll get to experience northern or eastern as well, and probably not southern Bohemia or any of Moravia. Who knows how much time we'll have, but I'll give it my best shot. If the tour isn't working out as planned, I may head over to Vienna for Monday Tuesday, or maybe Budapest for Sunday-Tuesday. I should still be able to go buy a hotel for a nickel in Bratislava, especially since its a 2 day 1 night trip on a 20 USD 3hour train.
So after searching for breweries in my Econ class, I tried taking notes and reading the WSJ, the combination of which put me to sleep [in the first row of course]; luckily I have perfected my class sleeping to eliminate the head bob, keep the eyes seemingly-squinted, and even wake up soon after. I used to be able to take notes while being asleep, but it's been a while since freshman year.
I came home and made the best stir fry to date. Today's tricks: cooking everything together, using Uncle Ben's instant Jasmine rice, adding frozen vegetables, a little more chicken than usual, and a lot more soy sauce than usual. Quite tasty. In addition, I have been maintaining my quite unhealthy average of 1 small onion and 2 cloves of garlic daily. I have also read quite a bit more, and am actually going to do some studying for my 2 midterms tomorrow. Not too much of course, but probably about a half hour in total should suffice. As I type, Jarda is having 'game night' with a few of his buddies. Tonight they are playing some weird Czech version of monopoly that consists of being farmers not real estate moguls, but I guess every culture has its quirks. And now, its on to Gossip Girl!

So Long, Farewell

Yesterday was pretty rough. In addition to staying up late in bed, having been used to staying up late partying the previous few nights, I got attacked by bugs. As awkward as this may sound, I woke up with at least 1 spider bite on each arm and a swollen lip, which I believe was from another bug that I had later swatted off my face. And Jarda says that spiders don't bite in the Czech Republic. I haven't believed him once this semester, and last night just confirmed it again. So I woke up lethargic and late, not caring that I was strolling into class a few minutes after I should have. After another long day of classes, I finally got a nice break by walking to yoga. As nice as this was, I unfortunately can't say that the positives of yoga outweighed the negatives to come.
So far, the score is 2-2: yoga gets double points for requiring energy/exercise and making me feel better, while team Evil gets 2 points for attacking me with spiders then boring me with class. As I was walking up the stairs to my apartment, I noticed that our inner doors (once inside the building, one door leads to my building, and another to a different) to our building were totally wide open. Usually, at most one may find 1 door wide open, never both. I walked up the stairs slightly puzzled, then saw 2 guys walking down the stairs with a foosball table in their hands. My horrific nightmare was right; I had blocked out Jarda telling us on Sunday that we would be losing the table Monday, and reality sure shocked me. I had wanted to hide the table under Robert's bed, but that unfortunately wasn't good enough and we had to lose it. So much for my professional foosball career: training has now been temporarily suspended for an indefinite time, similar to Hilary Clinton's presidential hopes.
I'm again bored in class typing and wasting time. I was going to skype with mom mid-class but I thought that might be too obnoxious. Instead, I have been drawing pictures, wikipediaing, and crying about the loss of our table. After class, I just walked to Washcloth square and mailed my absentee ballot home: insured of course. I can't believe that cost twice as much as the fried cheese sandwich I bought right afterward. That's right, fried cheese sandwich. It's a national dish, and is pretty much a delicious, massive mozzarella stick [even though its not mozzarella] on a bun. Yum

Days Disappearing in the Darkness

Food for thought: When I walk to my tram stop from my apartment, I walk downhill. When I walk from my tram stop to my apartment, I also walk downhill. It's awesome.

Anyways we finished playing soccer Friday night and showered just in time to catch the second half of the Prague basketball game. USK Praha was playing against some small Czech team, and free entrance combined with 22 krown beers is a recipe for success and entertainment at any sports venue in my book, especially if the stadium is within a 5 minute walk of your home. The game was pretty close when we got there, and with Prague been led by their high scorer, Lawrence from our building, it was quite fun. I guess the only problem was the really obnoxious fans from the other team who played drums and blew air horns nonstop. We made the mistake of sitting next to them instead of with the Prague fans, but it didn't make much of a difference because we were still so close; the stadium is smaller than a high school gym, and everyone has court side seats. With like 5 minutes left Prague was down by 10 points, and with 3 minutes to go, Lawrence drained a 3 to bring them within 2. He then fouled out and they were down by a few more for the rest of the game.
With 12 seconds left and 3 points to tie, Prague's point guard stole a pass and got technical fouled at midcourt. This put them behind by one with 5 seconds left and an inbound pass away from defeat. The point guard drove hard, but with no where to go he jumped backwards and to the side during his lay up. He then put up a prayer of a hook shot [while diving back towards the 3 point circle] which bounced off the back rim and got tipped in as the buzzer rang to give USK the win by one. It was awesome.
I think we forget how easy it is to forget about the day. If a night gets stretched past its period of darkness, it unfortunately ends up forfeiting the following day too. Friday night ended with a cold walk home from an apartment near my tram station [like 10 minutes away, not my tram stop], and had it been a weekday, people would have been off to work, students off to school, and me drunk in Czech class; it was probably 7 or 8am. Instead, I got to walk home and sleep until noon. After waking up, I went to the park again and played more soccer. That was fun. We then showered and went to a sports bar to watch college football and eat tuna pizza. Well, I was the only one who tried that, the other guys got just like proscuitto pizza or something.
With a stomach now filled with food - and beer - we walked around Wenceslav Square [pronounced like washcloth said quickly] and stopped at gyro-dog/sausage stands on the side of the square to drink more beer. All the while, every advertiser in the square is seeing us - a group of 5 guys - and offering us entrance to their cabarets. These guys are worse than Egyptian flies; no matter what you do, they do not leave you alone. I wanted to have a bidding war between multiple of them just for entertainment, but they only have, for the most part, the same few lines of English vernacular. We discovered that the only way to get them to go away is to claim to only want a cabaret with men, no women. This worked for a while, mostly driving them away after about 10 seconds, until one guy responded, "Oh you want that? I can get you that, come with me!" Wonderful. After 15 minutes of pests, I guess we were bound to find one guy who would have an answer like that. All that meant was we needed to step up our demands to drive them away, which somehow even got trumped when a guy [out of the blue] offered us the ability to step on midgets while they did terrible things to each other. If that's not what he was saying, he might have been sufferring from epilepsy on the sidewalk.
Having been bothered by every Cabaret for over a half hour, we took the metro across town to Kross Club. Becuase the subways are so far below ground, they need to have massive escalators to get you there. These are really fun if you are not the drunkest of your friends, and one or two of them decide to slide down the sides of the escalator. These are even funnier when your friend doesn't realize there are giant metal rivets on the side banister, so he smashes his bottom on them every 6ft for 20 yards. They are also really funny when your friend tries running up the down escalator. For a regular person on a regular escalator, this isn't too hard. For an incredibly intoxicated individual on a 50 yard long escalator, this is close to impossible. When he finally was within 5 feet of the top, a security officer stopped my friend, sent him back all the way down, and made him take the right escalator up. It was pretty funny, and the second time he tried sprinting up he almost had a heart attack.
Kross Club ended up not having any friends that were supposed to be there, and ended up having quite the interesting crowd. Filled with tattoos, piercings, hair dye, lots of leather, strange hairstyles, and metal, none of the natives were really my cup of tea. The metal, both in music and in their bodies, ran thematically throughout the whole club in decoration too. It was weird, and had there been other people and other music, might have been much more fun.
On our way to another club now, we learned of an exorbitant cover charge and ditched those plans. With nowhere to go, we randered around and found a tobacco shop [similar to US newspaper stands mixed with food stuffs stores] and an upscale karaoke bar. Which did we choose? The tobacco store of course. We bought some liquor, some beer, and some soda, and then headed to what seemed like a random basement. Of course, similar to every other random basement in Prague, it was actually the entrance to a bar, and this bar was really cool. With individual rooms for each party, this karaoke bar is slightly different from the Asian filled American karaoke bars we are all used to. It also makes it easier to sneak in alcohol and have more fun with just your friends. We went back to the CIEE dorms and hung out for a while, which proceeded to another 6am walk to my apartment. This led to another late sleep, and another forgotten weekend day. Oh, how the day can disappear.