So as you can tell I finally updated the blog with my adventures. I promise to try and update this more regularly from now on. Sometime next week you can expect a post about Rome (where I went last weekend) and Paris (where I am going tomorrow). Also, I will add a few fun stories about the happenings here in Prague.
So for real, more to come.
February 25, 2009
Bratislava: The Poor Man's Prague
Oh Bratislava, how I love you. Everything about this trip was absolutely ridiculous, so ridiculous I can't even tell all of it here. However, I will give you the highlights.
Myself, Scott, Chris, Kyle, Sam (a girl) and Allison left Prague on Friday night, Feb 6th. The tone of the trip was set in the first moment. Scott and I walked up to a bus to ask him if we were at the right area. The man slowly and dead-faced turned to us, then turned away, never answering our question. When we knocked on the window again, he yelled something to us in Czech and pointed to gate 11. We went and waited there only to have the same fucking bus pull up and let us on. Uh oh.
Our five hour trip wasn't too bad, aside from the blasting Czech-subtitled Clooney movie that was on volume 1000 and the fact that they wouldn't let us go to the bathroom until we were almost there. Immediately upon exiting the bus, we started ripping shots of Tesco (like safeway) brand rum and wandered around, trying desperately to find our hostel. We finally did find it an hour later and after walking into the sketchiest back alley ever. Upon hastily dumping our bags off, we embarked on an adventure of a night. For the record, by the time we actually left the hostel, it was around 1 in the morning. We started the night with a bang and threw back two absinth shots at The Slovak Pub, a large, old and wooden restaurant/bar. The rest of the night is one big blur of random events. We thought we were about to fight a group of Slovaks, but it turns out they just wanted to play a friendly game of Rock, paper, scissors. Obviously, America emerged victorious and we celebrated our win with a few more shots at the nearest bar. We finally ended our night around 4 am.
The next day we worked off our groginess at a delicious lunch place. And by delicious, I mean not at all and ridiculous. Not only did we discover 1 L of beer is a great hangover cure, but apparently it is quite normal to get cheesy potatoes with a side of sour milk. Crazy Slovaks. After leaving our baffling meal, we headed over to Bratislava Castle, the only known cultural sight in the city. Turns out the castle was (re)built in the 1950s and was under renovation so the whole thing was covered in scaffolding. To make the Castle a bit more interesting, I tried to scare the girls by hiding in a corner. I somehow managed to miss Sam walking around the corner and jumped out belatedly. To my surpise, I ran straight into an older man and proceeded to scare the shit out of him and myself in the process. The ensuing laughter of my friends died down a good ten minutes afterwards.
That night we again dined in the Slovak Pub. This time however, our waiter (pretty sure he was a busboy that spoke good english), took us into the very back of the place and proceeded to block us in. He thought we asked for non-smoking and therefore placing chairs in front of the doors would stop the smoke. He even kicked out other diners from that room. So we supped in private and consumated the dinner with a fiery shot of absinthe and several beers. We then went out in search of Subclub. The place is the hardest damn place to find in the world. At one point, a man on a Razor scooter lead us down a hill and onto the freeway onramp. Despite our skepticism, scooter-man was correct and a few hundred meters down on the freeway we found the club. We walked in and down about 50 stairs to two huge metal doors. You see, Subclub is in fact a converted nuclear fallout shelter. After paying 7 euro to get in, we walked down a tube that was spalshed in red light and emerged in the coolest club I've ever seen. The place was a raging trance-techno bar. Check out my pictures in my last Flickr album to see how insane it was.
We woke up the next morning a bit later and had a leisurly lunch. Not by choice however. Our waitress either decided to mess with us or really didn't understand english. She proceeded to mess up every single one of our orders and laughed at/with? us the whole time. So our quick lunch ended up taking around 2 hours and was ok at best. Finally, we boarded a Slovak lines bus (the ticket cost a whopping $12) and headed back to lovely Prague. When in Bratislava...
Myself, Scott, Chris, Kyle, Sam (a girl) and Allison left Prague on Friday night, Feb 6th. The tone of the trip was set in the first moment. Scott and I walked up to a bus to ask him if we were at the right area. The man slowly and dead-faced turned to us, then turned away, never answering our question. When we knocked on the window again, he yelled something to us in Czech and pointed to gate 11. We went and waited there only to have the same fucking bus pull up and let us on. Uh oh.
Our five hour trip wasn't too bad, aside from the blasting Czech-subtitled Clooney movie that was on volume 1000 and the fact that they wouldn't let us go to the bathroom until we were almost there. Immediately upon exiting the bus, we started ripping shots of Tesco (like safeway) brand rum and wandered around, trying desperately to find our hostel. We finally did find it an hour later and after walking into the sketchiest back alley ever. Upon hastily dumping our bags off, we embarked on an adventure of a night. For the record, by the time we actually left the hostel, it was around 1 in the morning. We started the night with a bang and threw back two absinth shots at The Slovak Pub, a large, old and wooden restaurant/bar. The rest of the night is one big blur of random events. We thought we were about to fight a group of Slovaks, but it turns out they just wanted to play a friendly game of Rock, paper, scissors. Obviously, America emerged victorious and we celebrated our win with a few more shots at the nearest bar. We finally ended our night around 4 am.
The next day we worked off our groginess at a delicious lunch place. And by delicious, I mean not at all and ridiculous. Not only did we discover 1 L of beer is a great hangover cure, but apparently it is quite normal to get cheesy potatoes with a side of sour milk. Crazy Slovaks. After leaving our baffling meal, we headed over to Bratislava Castle, the only known cultural sight in the city. Turns out the castle was (re)built in the 1950s and was under renovation so the whole thing was covered in scaffolding. To make the Castle a bit more interesting, I tried to scare the girls by hiding in a corner. I somehow managed to miss Sam walking around the corner and jumped out belatedly. To my surpise, I ran straight into an older man and proceeded to scare the shit out of him and myself in the process. The ensuing laughter of my friends died down a good ten minutes afterwards.
That night we again dined in the Slovak Pub. This time however, our waiter (pretty sure he was a busboy that spoke good english), took us into the very back of the place and proceeded to block us in. He thought we asked for non-smoking and therefore placing chairs in front of the doors would stop the smoke. He even kicked out other diners from that room. So we supped in private and consumated the dinner with a fiery shot of absinthe and several beers. We then went out in search of Subclub. The place is the hardest damn place to find in the world. At one point, a man on a Razor scooter lead us down a hill and onto the freeway onramp. Despite our skepticism, scooter-man was correct and a few hundred meters down on the freeway we found the club. We walked in and down about 50 stairs to two huge metal doors. You see, Subclub is in fact a converted nuclear fallout shelter. After paying 7 euro to get in, we walked down a tube that was spalshed in red light and emerged in the coolest club I've ever seen. The place was a raging trance-techno bar. Check out my pictures in my last Flickr album to see how insane it was.
We woke up the next morning a bit later and had a leisurly lunch. Not by choice however. Our waitress either decided to mess with us or really didn't understand english. She proceeded to mess up every single one of our orders and laughed at/with? us the whole time. So our quick lunch ended up taking around 2 hours and was ok at best. Finally, we boarded a Slovak lines bus (the ticket cost a whopping $12) and headed back to lovely Prague. When in Bratislava...
Kutna Hora and the Bone Church
In the beginning of February, all of the CIEE students had to take a mandatory field trip to a small town called Kutna Hora, about an hour outside of Prague. We were scheduled to leave around 9 am the next morning, which turned out to be brutally early. The night before, a group of us from the 4th floor decided to go out and celebrate the weekend. Bad idea.
I woke up with a nasty hangover and had to scramble into clothes to make it to the metro in time. I somehow managed to make it to the coach bus on time and promptly passed out until we arrived at our destination. I stepped off the bus to the sight of a beautiful, albeit snowy, little village. The town used to be valuabe due to its copious silver mines, all of which have long since run dry. We split into small groups and were given a tour of various sights in the town. We started with a beautiful old (and RICH) gothic church. The tour would have been great if it wasn't about 18 degrees inside and our tourguide didn't love his own voice with a passion.
We proceeded next to the town's Castle. The castle itself was beautiful with some impressive artwork. More importantly however, the castle housed the silversmiths who minted their own unique currency. We saw the transformation of the coins with each successive ruler and dynasty. Pretty cool stuff, and we got our own small coin from a dressed up dude pretending to be a silversmith.
After eating in an old beer-hall (pretty legit and great hot wine), we drove to the nearby Bone Church. This church was constructed in the late 19th century after someone discovered an ancient mass-grave, most likely from the Plague. There were supposedly 40,000 bodies discovered there. An artist decided that instead of just leaving these bodies, he would turn them into works of art and decorate a church with them. Pretty freaking weird and kinda spooky, but still pretty impressive nontheless. We were able to walk around for about an hour and see a crest made up of every bone in the human body and also a chandelier made up of vertebrae and pelvic bones. What the hell do they do here in the Czech Republic?
The Crest
I woke up with a nasty hangover and had to scramble into clothes to make it to the metro in time. I somehow managed to make it to the coach bus on time and promptly passed out until we arrived at our destination. I stepped off the bus to the sight of a beautiful, albeit snowy, little village. The town used to be valuabe due to its copious silver mines, all of which have long since run dry. We split into small groups and were given a tour of various sights in the town. We started with a beautiful old (and RICH) gothic church. The tour would have been great if it wasn't about 18 degrees inside and our tourguide didn't love his own voice with a passion.
We proceeded next to the town's Castle. The castle itself was beautiful with some impressive artwork. More importantly however, the castle housed the silversmiths who minted their own unique currency. We saw the transformation of the coins with each successive ruler and dynasty. Pretty cool stuff, and we got our own small coin from a dressed up dude pretending to be a silversmith.
After eating in an old beer-hall (pretty legit and great hot wine), we drove to the nearby Bone Church. This church was constructed in the late 19th century after someone discovered an ancient mass-grave, most likely from the Plague. There were supposedly 40,000 bodies discovered there. An artist decided that instead of just leaving these bodies, he would turn them into works of art and decorate a church with them. Pretty freaking weird and kinda spooky, but still pretty impressive nontheless. We were able to walk around for about an hour and see a crest made up of every bone in the human body and also a chandelier made up of vertebrae and pelvic bones. What the hell do they do here in the Czech Republic?
The CrestFebruary 10, 2009
PRAHA!!!
So I realize now that I have been in Prague for almost 3 full weeks and it's time for an update. Prague is an amazing city. At first glance, everything appears very daunting since all you see are completely unfamiliar words, often with lots of 'v', 'y' and strangely accented letters. However I've never had a more fun challenge than starting figuring out this city.
I flew into Prague on Monday, Jan 19th in the morning. My first glimpse of Prague was spectacular in the bright sun. I met up with other kids from my program in the airport and we all proceeded to a hotel for the night. I decided to walk around and explore a bit with some other kids. After finding we would be studying next to a 500 year-old church and a beautiful park, we stopped for lunch at a local Czech eatery. Two pivos (beer) and a hearty lunch of meat and potatoes was a whopping $7. Each pivo only cost 23 Korunas, or about $1.10.
We spent the next week in orientation sessions. Half the time we sat in classrooms and had life here explained to us. The other, more interesting part, was taking various walking tours around the city by our Czech Buddies, who are local Charles University students who live with us and help us out. I learned to navigate the city very quickly because of them, which is clutch. Public transportation and the trams in particular get you wherever you need to go at all hours of the day.
I am living on the top floor of a dorm right down the hill from the study center. I'm living with Scott, one of my friends from my freshman hall. We are two of the 7 guys living in a dorm that also has 28 other girls. Not a bad ratio at all. Everyone here is also down to explore and go out which is great. It's almost like reliving freshman year, except now we actually know what to do. We often go out as a group with kids from the dorm and meet up with some apartment kids elsewhere.
Prague nightlife is amazing. That first week a Czech buddy took us to a Czech Beatles cover band playing at a club with a retractable roof. We also went to a 5 story club with a different style of music and design on each floor. As much as I hate clubbing at home they are a blast here. One place called Radost FX is amazing as well. Almost every night of the week people are willing to go out and do something new, and everywhere I've been so far has been a blast.
After our orientation week, we had two weeks of intensive Czech language. We had class for 5 hours, 5 days a week. Not so much fun, although I found it to be far easier than arabic, so it was a nice change. Plus, with so much class, I picked up on the basics pretty quickly. Hello is 'Ahoj,' which is literally pronounced 'Ahoy!' It's been very useful, especially when trying to figure out where the hell you are or what to order.
I have plenty more to talk about, but it will have to wait for later. We had intense downhill skiing, a church made of bones, and my weekend adventure in Bratislava. More on that later...but for now, check out some of these new pictures
Prague and Bratislava Pics
I flew into Prague on Monday, Jan 19th in the morning. My first glimpse of Prague was spectacular in the bright sun. I met up with other kids from my program in the airport and we all proceeded to a hotel for the night. I decided to walk around and explore a bit with some other kids. After finding we would be studying next to a 500 year-old church and a beautiful park, we stopped for lunch at a local Czech eatery. Two pivos (beer) and a hearty lunch of meat and potatoes was a whopping $7. Each pivo only cost 23 Korunas, or about $1.10.
We spent the next week in orientation sessions. Half the time we sat in classrooms and had life here explained to us. The other, more interesting part, was taking various walking tours around the city by our Czech Buddies, who are local Charles University students who live with us and help us out. I learned to navigate the city very quickly because of them, which is clutch. Public transportation and the trams in particular get you wherever you need to go at all hours of the day.
I am living on the top floor of a dorm right down the hill from the study center. I'm living with Scott, one of my friends from my freshman hall. We are two of the 7 guys living in a dorm that also has 28 other girls. Not a bad ratio at all. Everyone here is also down to explore and go out which is great. It's almost like reliving freshman year, except now we actually know what to do. We often go out as a group with kids from the dorm and meet up with some apartment kids elsewhere.
Prague nightlife is amazing. That first week a Czech buddy took us to a Czech Beatles cover band playing at a club with a retractable roof. We also went to a 5 story club with a different style of music and design on each floor. As much as I hate clubbing at home they are a blast here. One place called Radost FX is amazing as well. Almost every night of the week people are willing to go out and do something new, and everywhere I've been so far has been a blast.
After our orientation week, we had two weeks of intensive Czech language. We had class for 5 hours, 5 days a week. Not so much fun, although I found it to be far easier than arabic, so it was a nice change. Plus, with so much class, I picked up on the basics pretty quickly. Hello is 'Ahoj,' which is literally pronounced 'Ahoy!' It's been very useful, especially when trying to figure out where the hell you are or what to order.
I have plenty more to talk about, but it will have to wait for later. We had intense downhill skiing, a church made of bones, and my weekend adventure in Bratislava. More on that later...but for now, check out some of these new pictures
Prague and Bratislava Pics
January 28, 2009
Dublin
Its been long enough, time to update you all about Dublin. David and I landed at the airport in the late afternoon and departed the plane for customs. While I breezed right through, the Irish customs police apparently thought David was the next Osama because they interrogated the hell out of him. They asked him where he was staying, with who (and tried to call them), how much money he had and how much he could take out. Apparently the guy soon realized that David is about as terrorizing as Willy, and they let him through. We first met Kevin just outside immigration. I didn't really know what to expect at first, but the true Kevin certainly surpassed my expectations. Going on 70+, this grey-haired old priest (frock and all) shuffled up to us and briskly led us to the car. I think it took him about 2 or three days to remember my name, otherwise calling me 'you.' For everyone who claims I mumble and speak too fast, you clearly never met Kevin. Over the course of 5 days or so, I MAYBE understood about half the things he said, and the rest of the time I just nodded and smiled. After driving to his house in Ballybrack (about 25 min from the downtown), we had a lovely dinner (read: real food) cooked by Kevin's wife Jenny, and then proceeded to head into town. We found the Stag's Head Pub, had our first pint of the black stuff, and walked around for a while before heading back to meet Kevin and his friend for a pint in nearby Monkstown.
The next day David and I headed back into Dublin where we walked around Trinity College (greenest grass I've ever seen) and visited Christchurch Cathedral. In the crypt below the Cathedral, they had a display of a mummified cat and mouse that found their way into the organ pipes. Pretty fucking creepy. Also, a word of warning: NEVER eat bangers and mash. It's pretty much the most disgusting meal every. That evening we took a tour of the Guinness factory which was pretty awesome. We got to the top of the factory, which was a bar with 360 degree floor-to-ceiling windows just in time for a beautiful sunset and view of Dublin. We ended our night drinking pints around the Temple Bar area and stumbled home via train.
We had a later start the following morning, opting to nurse our soreness from the night before. When we finally got into town, we headed to an 18th century prison called Kilmainham Gaol (far walk). The prison used to house Irish revolutionaries throughout the centuries but is now a well preserved and interesting museum/relic. Reminded me a bit of Shawshank...We then headed over to the Jameson Distillery for some good ol' Irish whiskey. Although the tour was a joke, David and I volunteered and were rewarded with a few shots of whiskey from various parts of the world. With a nice warm buzz, we left the distillery for the nearest pub and watched a Heineken Cup rugby match (Munster vs. the Sale Sharks). It was fun to be in such an intense atmosphere for the game and I enjoyed trying to teach David the rules and what the hell was going on.
Saturday, David and I set out for Kilkenny (Cork and the Blarney stone were much to far away to make the trip practical). Kilkenny is a beautiful medieval town about 2 hours southwest of Dublin. However, when we got there, we were greeted with massive wind gusts and rain. Our umbrella snapped before we left the bus station. We had to make do with makeshift ponchos made out of TJ Maxx garment bags. Needless to say we got some glares. We spent the day walking around the town visiting various churches and other sites. All in all, I enjoyed the town (except for the Castle, which we couldn't tour) and we caught the bus back to Dublin that evening.
Sunday was my last day in Ireland and I enjoyed it in true style. We had a nice lunch with Kevin, Jenny, their daughter and Jenny's sister. I packed up my things and David and I went to the Four Courts Hostel (pretty good place, check it out if you are going to Dublin), dropped off our bags and started drinking. With pints costing about 5 euro, we decided to be thrifty and drank a small bottle of cheap vodka in one of the sketchiest alleys ever. Once finished, we continued going to various pubs. Alas, around 10pm or so, we parted ways and I went back to the hostel and crashed. My flight for Prague was at 7 am the next morning and I wasn't looking forward to getting up at 4 am.
While I loved Ireland, I was getting ancy to get to Prague and start my program and from the moment I landed, Praha did not disappoint...
If you want to see some pictures of David and I in Ireland, go to my Flickr page. The address is:
Ireland Photos
This is a much easier way for me to share my pictures instead of posting only a few here. Enjoy
The next day David and I headed back into Dublin where we walked around Trinity College (greenest grass I've ever seen) and visited Christchurch Cathedral. In the crypt below the Cathedral, they had a display of a mummified cat and mouse that found their way into the organ pipes. Pretty fucking creepy. Also, a word of warning: NEVER eat bangers and mash. It's pretty much the most disgusting meal every. That evening we took a tour of the Guinness factory which was pretty awesome. We got to the top of the factory, which was a bar with 360 degree floor-to-ceiling windows just in time for a beautiful sunset and view of Dublin. We ended our night drinking pints around the Temple Bar area and stumbled home via train.
We had a later start the following morning, opting to nurse our soreness from the night before. When we finally got into town, we headed to an 18th century prison called Kilmainham Gaol (far walk). The prison used to house Irish revolutionaries throughout the centuries but is now a well preserved and interesting museum/relic. Reminded me a bit of Shawshank...We then headed over to the Jameson Distillery for some good ol' Irish whiskey. Although the tour was a joke, David and I volunteered and were rewarded with a few shots of whiskey from various parts of the world. With a nice warm buzz, we left the distillery for the nearest pub and watched a Heineken Cup rugby match (Munster vs. the Sale Sharks). It was fun to be in such an intense atmosphere for the game and I enjoyed trying to teach David the rules and what the hell was going on.
Saturday, David and I set out for Kilkenny (Cork and the Blarney stone were much to far away to make the trip practical). Kilkenny is a beautiful medieval town about 2 hours southwest of Dublin. However, when we got there, we were greeted with massive wind gusts and rain. Our umbrella snapped before we left the bus station. We had to make do with makeshift ponchos made out of TJ Maxx garment bags. Needless to say we got some glares. We spent the day walking around the town visiting various churches and other sites. All in all, I enjoyed the town (except for the Castle, which we couldn't tour) and we caught the bus back to Dublin that evening.
Sunday was my last day in Ireland and I enjoyed it in true style. We had a nice lunch with Kevin, Jenny, their daughter and Jenny's sister. I packed up my things and David and I went to the Four Courts Hostel (pretty good place, check it out if you are going to Dublin), dropped off our bags and started drinking. With pints costing about 5 euro, we decided to be thrifty and drank a small bottle of cheap vodka in one of the sketchiest alleys ever. Once finished, we continued going to various pubs. Alas, around 10pm or so, we parted ways and I went back to the hostel and crashed. My flight for Prague was at 7 am the next morning and I wasn't looking forward to getting up at 4 am.
While I loved Ireland, I was getting ancy to get to Prague and start my program and from the moment I landed, Praha did not disappoint...
If you want to see some pictures of David and I in Ireland, go to my Flickr page. The address is:
Ireland Photos
This is a much easier way for me to share my pictures instead of posting only a few here. Enjoy
January 21, 2009
A night in Paris!
Hello from Europe. It's been a while since I last posted and a lot has happened in those couple of days. To start, my flight to Paris was initially delayed about 5 hours. I eventually landed around 4pm in Paris on the 13th after leaving the day before. So after I landed and passed customs, I made my way to the St. Christopher's Hostel (awesome place albeit far from the sights, close to metro though) and found David waiting in the lobby. I put down my bags and we went off exploring. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower, which looked just amazing at night as you can see.
After that we walked up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. Read David's blog for a great story about some Asian girls bolting when he asked them to take our picture. Anyway, we wandered around Paris for a few more hours and then went back to the hostel for the night. We woke up the next day and had coffee at a great little French cafe, very cliche but still pretty cool. We then packed up the rest of our stuff, hopped on the metro to Charles de Gaulle airport and took an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin in the early afternoon! More to come on our adventures in Dublin
After that we walked up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. Read David's blog for a great story about some Asian girls bolting when he asked them to take our picture. Anyway, we wandered around Paris for a few more hours and then went back to the hostel for the night. We woke up the next day and had coffee at a great little French cafe, very cliche but still pretty cool. We then packed up the rest of our stuff, hopped on the metro to Charles de Gaulle airport and took an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin in the early afternoon! More to come on our adventures in Dublin
January 12, 2009
I'm Off!
I leave in 12 hours for Europe and I'm stoked as hell. I fly out at 3:30 pm. for Paris and land around 11:30 am. on Tuesday. I am meeting David at the airport (hopefully) and then we'll explore the city for the day and crash in a hostel. We then fly to Dublin on Wed the 14th. Turns out we are staying with David's friend, a 75 year-old Episcopal priest, in the countryside outside the city. We are planning on going to the Guinness factory and then pretty much drinking at every possible bar for four days. I'll let you know how things progress...
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