Mark's Grand Adventure

Anicka (Pronounced ahneechkah)

2009-06-11T17:16:00.000+02:00

Solo Hike

2009-04-10T17:15:00.000+02:00

A Day Out with Megan and Her Mom

2009-03-29T11:14:00.000+02:00

Spring Break

2009-03-22T18:40:00.000+01:00

Rodeo Houston

2009-02-28T18:39:00.000+01:00

Winter hike

2009-02-10T18:39:00.000+01:00

New Year's 2008

2008-12-31T22:00:00.000+01:00

A Day at the Museum

2008-12-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

Greek Fest 2008

2008-11-22T19:38:00.000+01:00

Halloween at Lara's

2008-10-25T20:00:00.000+02:00

Alligator hike

2008-10-25T10:00:00.000+02:00

Texas Rennaisance 2008

2008-10-21T23:26:00.000+02:00

Independence

2008-10-12T19:59:00.000+02:00

Chicago

2008-08-01T16:14:00.000+02:00

Krakow 16 July- 20 July

2008-07-20T18:23:00.000+02:00

Warsaw July 13-July 16

2008-07-16T09:33:00.000+02:00

Vilnius July 10-July 13

2008-07-13T09:31:00.000+02:00

Riga July 8th-July 10

2008-07-09T21:50:00.002+02:00

Saint Petersburg 3rd July- 7th July

2008-07-06T09:24:00.002+02:00

Moscow June 30-July 3, 2008

2008-07-03T20:41:00.000+02:00

Tabor

2008-06-21T09:30:00.001+02:00

Museum Night 2008

2008-06-14T09:34:00.000+02:00

Borivojova Pub Crawl

2008-06-13T09:35:00.000+02:00

Snezka 2

2008-05-23T09:36:00.001+02:00

Update: Jana sent me her pictures from this expedition. She's a better photographer than I am, and I seem to have been with her much of the night. Anyway, enjoy her pictures, and practice your Czech. http://huggie.rajce.idnes.cz/Snezka_v_noci_24.5.2008/#album

Prague Marathon 2008

2008-05-11T14:55:00.000+02:00

Saint Petersburg

2008-05-09T21:19:00.000+02:00

Rip

2008-05-07T14:56:00.000+02:00

Telc

2008-05-01T15:04:00.001+02:00

Benn and Petra get married

2008-04-26T15:06:00.001+02:00

Okor

2008-04-19T15:07:00.001+02:00

Beroun to Karlstejn

2008-04-05T15:09:00.000+02:00

Olomouc

2008-03-22T15:12:00.000+01:00

Divoka Sarka

2008-03-15T15:28:00.000+01:00

Joan's Birthday 2008

2008-02-29T15:32:00.000+01:00

Birthday 2008

2008-02-03T16:13:00.000+01:00

Celebrated a little late this year, but it was worth the wait. Spent the afternoon watching the opening games of the six nations rugby and then went for sushi at our favorite local spot. More people showed up than expected and we upset the waitress with our numbers, but we had a good time anyway. Afterwards we went to our local sport bar and played foosball and darts until they threw us out. Photos
George's Photos

New Photo Site

2008-02-02T11:22:00.000+01:00

Hey folks. I am experimenting with a new photo site called Picasa. I'm sure any of you with a web presence are aware of this Google owned site, but I like it because a: I can post photos that people can see without me having to email them or them having to sign up and b: I can upload directly from my phone/camera meaning I will upload more often. While I know I need to get better at posting, at least you can view pictures with brief descriptions. The site address is: http://picasaweb.google.com/dntpanic.tpc
As always my old photo site is here: http://www.craigmwright.com/markwright

Sesame Street - milk crisis

2008-01-28T18:03:00.001+01:00

Ok, I know I haven't updated in ages, and I really really intend to go back and fill in the blanks. In the meantime, I had to post this. My sister and I have a shared memory from childhood about this sesame street vignette about milk. It basically follows the production of milk from the cows to the baby drinking it. It's all accompanied by this really strange music that basically repeats the word milk over and over again. Unfortunately, while my sister and I share this memory, I have never met (until recently) anyone else who saw this, and everyone always thinks I'm a little bit crazy when I describe it. Then only recently I met someone here in Prague who had also seen it, and had a similar experience. Today for my birthday my sister searched the internet (thank god for the internet), and found the video!!!!!! It's real, and now everyone knows it!

Happy Halloween

2007-10-30T17:48:00.001+01:00

http://www.cubpack81.com/images/carve_pumpkin.swf

River Race

2007-10-17T14:42:00.001+02:00

My friend Jirko from the pub has been planning a trip to the Vavrinec river to do a little conoeing. It's a river he has been on with his family before, but was new for most of the pub goers. Megan and I had planned to attend, but made no effort to make preparations or reserve equipment for the trip, so on Wednesday or Thursday we decided not to go. However on Thursday night at Pub Night, both Scott and I were ambushed into signing up, each with the belieif that if we didn't go there would not be enough pairs to fill all the boats. We both signed up, and made a pair. I was actually glad to be going, especially since, like most of the pub trip, I didn't have to plan anything beyond what to wear and what to take.
I made two miscalculations. The first was staying out late on Friday playing poker at Rob and Marta's. Generally I have a reputation for being a poor poker player, although on Friday and also the last time we played I finished the night slightly above my buy in. However, it took me until after two to accomplish that task. The other was not understanding the elements I would be facing. The river was incredibly cold, not surprising for mid October, and even with the wetsuit, I spent most of the day shivering.
On the car ride to the river the 8 of us split into teams of two, largely male female teams, which in hindsight may have been part of the push to sign Scott and I up onto the trip. Once we arrived we realized the river was going to be quite crowded. Apparently there was a kayaking race or competition running on the river. This concerned me for a couple of reasons. One is that a crowded river is obviously harder to navigate, and two was a slight understanding of what kind of river would be exciting for kayakers. I understood when I saw the river. The current was strong and fast while the river was ver thin, running little wider that the lenght of our boats for most of it's trek. Also the river coursed through a forest so that it was constantly running around trees, stumps, and other hazards, besides running under low lying bridges (some of which forced me to lay down entirely at the bottom of the boat), cataracts and winding sharply along its path.
Once in the boat two problems became immediately clear to me, as Kat, my partner, and I careened into Scott's already beached boat and both ended up swimming. The first, more annoying problem, was that I would have to squat on my knees for the whole time. The boats sat low in the water, and my height caused the boat to be slightly unstable and increased the likelyhood of me taking a plunge. This had the effect of making my lower legs fall asleep for most of the trip. The other problem that I spent most of the rest of the day trying to overcome was that the boats were flat bottomed. What this means for the unaware is that the direction the front of the boat is pointing in has very little impact on the direction of the boat, expecially when facing a current as strong as the one we were dealing with. basically this meant that if the river turned, we went banging into the far bank, and if I needed to dodge a tree that had grown in the center of the this river, we mostly sideswiped it. The funny part is that this mostly meant that dealing with cataracts and rapids was actually the easiest part of the day.
Eventually Kate and I got a good rhythm for moving the boat, and I got an understanding, though basic, of how to steer it. We discovered that we could sit up on the seats when the boat was going straight, but that we needed to slide down into the bottom when the going got tough. Also I had an epiphany when I realized that going sideways and backwards was not actually a problem, and began using this to avoind danger. We faced a few early problems that kept Kaate and I wetr for the first hour or so, and we both had reason to be thankful for the helmets, as I banged my head into a stone arch bridge and she crashed hers into the floor of the river. Our biggest challenge came when I was unable to get the boat to go around a bridge pillar and we both went for a swim, but the rubber boat wrapped itself around the pilar. I had to wade upstream through the tight tunnel and unwind the boat, hoping that Kate who was holding both paddels could catch in on the other end. Of course she did, and we continued on. Though at this point I smiled and said we should try to stay in the boat form now on, and I don't think we turned over again for the rest of the trip.
After the first hour there was a break point with hot tea and sunlight, so we all pulled over to smile about the rigors of the first part of the trip. At this point we were all alittle beat up, but I think having a good time, except perhaps Scott who had been feeling well for several days, and who of course had discovered essentially the same problems I had.
I actually ended up in the water two more times, one when I failed to dodge a tree extending into the river. I managed to get Kate's part of the boat around the tree, but it actually dragged me out of the boat. My only satisfaction was pulling myself out of the river and seeing all of our companions who had gotten there first, also recovering from this trap. The next was when I fogot that the banks were very steep and actually stepped out of the boat into the deep river.
Toward the end of the trip is a steepand dangerous waterfall that we had to pull over and walk around, which you can see in the pictures. Only the most experienced kayakers actaully rode through this hazard. Also in the pictures you can see Kate and I riding over a waterfall at one of the race gates. At one of these we actually got trapped under the fall. We managed to stay up, but the boat got filled with water, and because of the nature of this river, it was some time before we could pull over leaving us to ride unsteerable through several hazards.
At the end of the trek, the organizers waited with tea and food, which was incredible, since we had brought none along for the ride. Afterwards we searched out a pub and had some dinner and drinks and talked about our day.
In the end the experience was exhilerating. My hands were almost inoperable, and I couldn't feel my toes. The next morning my entire body ached. However, it's something I'm really glad I did. One of the best things I have gotten from living in the Czech Republic is remembering how much I enjoy these kinds of activity. The river was actually quite beautiful, and the company was friendly and fun. Well done Jirko, another fine Pub Trip.

Pictures

Lunch in Dresden

2007-06-17T16:04:00.000+02:00

Time for another passport stamp, bt I'm broke, so our original plan to go to Poland got scrapped and we had to go back to Dresden. This time we planned to see a different set of sights titled by the guidebook as "romantic Dresden". This walk included beautiful 19th suburbs and the Blue Miracle, a bridge revered by the Dresdeners. At the end of WWII, the Nazis had set it to be destroyed to protect their retreat from the Russians, but two locals cut the firing cable, thereby saving the bridge.
The day started out on the wrong foot as we went to the wrong train station and had to run to catch our train. Once on board we quickly realized that almost eery seat had been reserved and we had to push into a cabin that wasn't quite full. But the train was one of the newer more comfortable ones, and we settled in for the 2 hour trip to Dresden.
Once ther we quickly headed off to lunch hoping that we might miss the rain that appeared to be coming on us. We had a very pleasant lunch at a restaurant we had also tried in Vienna. Unfortunately I also realized I had left my ticket back to Prague on the train. Afterward we spent some time trying to decipher the Dresden tram system which is complex, and I think poorly mapped. However we finally found our tram and travelled over to the bridge. Megan and I both found the bridge generally unimpressive, and only just barely blue, but it did offer some pretty spectacular views of the Elbe. Continuing on our way we found the Funicular which was to take us up into the hills above the river to walk through tree lined streets of a specific 19th century neighborhood. Unfortunately, once at the top, we soon realized that the funiculars destination had been changed since the writing of Megan's 10 year old guidebook. We wandered around the streets at the top for a few minutes, and I have to admit that the building are in fact quite lovely, but decided to try to make an earlier train back to Prague. On the way we realized we weren't gonna make it, but decided to go to the station to get me a new ticket, and then go get some dinner. At the station we found ourselves walking in circles trying to find a ticketing window, but finally had to settle for an automat. However, while wandering about Megan noticed that the train we had missed 30 minutes prior was still listed on the board. We decided to give it a shot and went to the platform where the train was in fact still sitting. We hopped on board and the train almost immediately set off, so that we knew we had had a piece of extremely good luck. Photos.

Konvikt July 2007

2007-06-13T11:11:00.001+02:00

Snezka

2007-06-04T12:57:00.000+02:00

So here's the plan. Let's climb the tallest mountain in the Czech Republic. Let's do it at night so we can see the full moon, and reach the top to watch the sun rise. Sounds pretty great right? Right?!

So we set out on Friday afternoon taking 3 trains to get to a town called Vrchlabi near the base of the mountain Snezka. From the train station we walked to a pub/brewery for dinner. On the way I took time to notice the vast differences in level of preparedness and sizes of backpacks. I think I had the largest backpack mostly filled with food and water, but also packed with warm weather gear and rain gear as we were expecting some rain. Dinner was pretty good, and the beer was refreshing, and so we set out for our climb about 10 I think. I should note here that I did not pay very good attention to time so all times mentioned are at best approximations.
Almost immediately after leaving the pub we started to climb. As usual George had selected a red trail for us, and it didn't take me long to start hoping that our whole climb would not be like this. The long train of hikers was soon separated into three groups, and I did my best to stay in the middle giving me somewhere to fall back to. The first couple of km was incredibly difficult but we reached a small rest stop and took 10 to recover. Unfortunately when George arrived he informed us that we had already lost Alan who, I think wisely, decided to turn back. At this point several people began searching for branches they could use for walking sticks and began discussing our possibilities for the future. I stupidly assumed the worst must be over, and cowboyed up to continue.
For the next fifteen km or so I focused primarily on moving forward. The weather began to chill but I was working so hard to keep moving that I didn't seem to need all the warm weather gear I was carrying. Again the groups divided into three separate treks, and again I tried to stay in the middle. Most of the time I was with a larger group of Czech hikers, most of whom are regular outdoorsmen and women, so we kept a good pace, but fortunately I was not expected to keep up any kind of conversation. We seemed to be heading for a place called Lucni Bouda which translates into something like Meadow Shack, so I just watched the trail signs and counted off the kms. A couple of time I considered leaving the group and setting off on my own on a green trail, but I was much more concerned about finding myself abandoned on this mountain.
The higher we got the harder the climbing. In hindsight I'm sure this had more to do with my growing exhaustion that the difficulty of the climb, although I did get a look at a 3d topographical map of our trail and was quite impressed with what I had done.
About 6 km outside of Lucni Bouda I asked my group if they would stop while I put on my rain gear. I was finally getting cold and a mist had picked up. At this point we had also lost the front group who illegally put up a tent and just called it a night. I think it's around 1am at this point. Everyone decided I had had a good idea and we all set about preparing for rain, covering our gear and getting jackets and such on before setting off again. The rain began and then continued to get worse until we were walking in a torrent. It didn't take long before the heavy rain had actually soaked through my rain gear so that even though I was wearing a raincoat, rain pants, and waterproof shoes, I was soon soaked through. It seemed everyone else was in the same situation. A couple of time I wondered what would happen if I just gave up and sat down in the trail, but I concentrated on just pushing forward. My strategy of staying in a front group so that I could fall back had actually backfired as my group had gotten so far ahead of the rear group that we had no idea where they were, so I was forced to keep pace. Fortunately my group had a few who were doing about as well as me and the rest were very helpful.
As I watched the kms tick off the trail signs I finally began to think I might be able to reach Lucni Bouda, the problem occurred to me at about 1.5km out that I wasn't sure why we were trying to reach Lucni Bouda, and that we had another 4km after that to the top. Fortunately as Lucni Bouda came into sight i heard someone say something about 24 hours, and I saw what looked like a very large barn. But there were lights, and what appeared to be cover. Stepping into the foyer was perhaps one of the best moments of my life, and when someone questioned whether we were able to stay I considered rebelling and camping out in a corner. However, the restaurant was open and they kindly let us come in and try to dry off. This was around 3am. In my giant pack I had a change of socks and clothes as well as camp towels which allowed me to get most of the water off me. I also had hot coffee and some food to get me going again. One of my boots had begun to slip around a few kms back causing the beginnings of a blister, and thanks to the fact that my rain pants had soaked through, my shoes were soaked as well.
The group tried to decide if we were going to continue or settle in for the night. A few went straight for the room, while the rest of us sat and waited for the rear group which arrived about 3:30. At this point the whole group split and about 12 continued on, while a total of 16 of us decided to bed down for the night and continue on in the morning.
The next morning we all got up for breakfast and I think the previous night was already beginning to get nostalgic. But the question remained to continue to the top or turn and go on to Spindleruv Mlyn where we could return to Prague. Continuing meant 4 km up the steepest part of the journey, turning back meant 10km along mostly downhill trails. I voted for going up, so we at least would have achieved our goal, and then we could take the cable car down to Pec Pod Snezku and grab a bus from there. The group agreed, and up we went. Despite the exhaustion from the night before, we puched on with pretty high spirits and made the top pretty quickly. We celebrated our victory and looked about but fog had enveloped the mountain so we hopped the cable car and headed down.
Once at the bottom we got a little more rain, but managed to get to our bus and get back into Prague. In the end I came out pretty well except for a terrible blister on my right heal, and was very proud to have accomplished the climb.

David's Account
Konvikt Photos
My Photos.

Canoeing on the Sazava

2007-05-21T12:56:00.000+02:00

Last year I missed the trip to the Sazava because I was too lazy to get out in the cold weather (in June). This year I was determined to go no matter what. The water level was expected to be low, but we all hoped it wouldn't case too many problems. When we arrived at the train station it was clear that we had picked a good day for a trip, since the station was completely full of people. However, George waited in line for the group to get us our tickets.
As we rode along the river we watched from the train, and it was clearly very low level. Once we arrived we got our equipment with little difficulty and Megan and I hopped into our canoe and went into the river. It had been a while since I was in a canoe, so we paddled about waiting for everyone else, so I could practice steering. There was a mixed crowd, and not everyone knew how to handle a canoe, so I tried to help a few people, but hopefully I'm a better English teacher than canoing teacher, cause I didn't actually seem to help anyone. Anyway, everyone eventually got into the river, and we headed out for the trip. Several of us stopped for lunch at this fun little grill on a rock in the river, and at this point the group began to split up. After lunch we went back into the river with little problem. For a while it was pretty smooth sailing, just paddling and enjoying the view with a few challenges at the several weirs along the way.
However, it wasn't too lon before we began to run into rocks that were banging around the boats, beaching the rafts, and turning over canoes. Megan and I did all right for a while, as I was able to steer around most of the rocks, but one finally got us in the middle of a rapids, and we took a little bath. Unfortunately, at this point I could barely keep hold of the canoe, and so couldn't help Megan to the side. Eventually George came along and helped me beach the boat so that I could delve into the river to rescue my girlfriend. We managed to get out safely and drain the boat so we could continue, but form this point forward Megan was pretty stressed about possibly turning over and banging her head on a rock, so I'm afraid she had considerably less fun than me.
On the bright side we again managed to stay upright for a while and dry out a bit. At one of the weirs, we'd caught up with those who had passed us while I was trying to hold onto my canoe.
This weir seemed to be quite a challenge as most people who went over it also went into the water. Without bothering to ask Megan I steered us into it, and we promptly turned over. The water was moving a little more slowly this time and I managed to grab the boat, but noticed Megan's shoe was floating away. I dove back into the water and took a few bruises for it, but managed to rescue the flip flop. I beached the boat, this time with Megan sitting inside. After draining the boat, we stayed and I helped a few others pull their boats out of the water.
Finally, we got back on the move. A little further along we stopped for a snack and some beer, where Megan could change, and I could dry off a bit. At this point we realized that our boat had a hole in it and we were taking on water. This made it more difficult to steer, and we had to pull over occasionally to drain the boat. However, we managed to get through the remaining rapids without going over again, as Megan began to get the hang of not turning with the boat, and we eventually reached the end of our journey. Here again we stopped for beer, and listened to what appeared to be a Hispanic cowboy band playing folk music while we waited for our train.
Photos.

Mom comes to Prague

2007-05-07T12:54:00.000+02:00

My mother finally came to visit me. While she was here I took her for my 3rd trip to Kutna Hora, Prague Castle, Vysehrad, Karlstejn, etc. I will update further when I can also upload the photos that she took while here.

Photos.

Cesky Raj

2007-04-22T12:53:00.000+02:00

The next Pub trip was a hike through Cesky Raj (Bohemian Paradise). We boarded a very slow train to Turnov where we planned to have lunch before setting off on a 16km hike. The trip took about two hours and the we wandered around Turnov looking for the correct restaurant. Apparently we had planned to eat at a specific restaurant, but that restaurant was actually in a different town, so we stopped in at some random place that was simply not prepared to feed the group of us. We basically got soup and bread, which some of us didn't feel was enough, but that was all that was available. After that we headed off in to the hills on a red trail, as usual. As I understand it the trails are color coded for difficulty with red being the hardest and green and yellow being easier. We always take the red.
Our first stop was a little castle tucked away in the forested hills called Valdstejn. It was nice to have a rest, as I think this first part of the tour was possibly the most difficult. Unfortunately the cash desk wouldn't negotiate with George for a better price, so we didn't go inside. However, as far as I could tell the outside was the best part of the view anyway. Also, this gave us more time for exploring and taking pictures later, so we moved on.
Our next goal was Hruba Skala, but along the way we had some opportunity to view the rock towers famous in this region. The trail actually took us very close and as you can see from the photos I and several others took the opportunity to get very close. Still there were some climbers that we could see getting even closer.
We finally arrived at Hruba Skala and we all sat down for some much needed refreshment of beer and sausage, and a little conversation about the trip so far. Fortified by the food and beer, we began the journey back to Turnov. The beginning of the trip back took us down between some of the rock towers for a new perspective on what we had been looking down on before. The route back took us through the hills and forests away from the cliff edges but along the base of several of these rock towers.
We came upon a small natural spring that offered folks an opportunity to refill their water if they were running low, and shortly after that we reached a lookout tower that gave a final view over Cesky Raj before beginning our descent into Turnov.
We were running a bit late for the train, and what was worse is that we seemed to have gotten a bit confused coming back into Turnov as to exactly how to get to the train station. To top off this last bit of frustration, poor Megan was having trouble with her new hiking boots and was in a great deal of pain. However we made our train and got back safely to Prague.
Photos.

Hluboka Nad Vltavou

2007-04-15T12:43:00.000+02:00

Megan and I had read about this castle in South Bohemia sitting on the Vltava that was supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the Czech Republic. Of course, we decided to take a day trip down there to see for ourselves. It was a bit of a long bus ride down, but we arrived in this quaint little town with a lovely little church on a beautiful spring day. We wandered briefly around the center of this little town, and then sat down for lunch at a local restaurant/hotel. The food was delicious and pretty cheap all in all. After lunch we started the climb to the castle. The view over the river and out into Bohemia was breathtaking and we took our time getting up the hill. As we approached the top I was fooled by what I thought was the castle, and was a little disappointed by its lack of grandiosity, but soon realized this was the attached hotel built to look like the castle. The castle itself is, in fact, one of the most spectacular we have yet seen. It's current configuration is actually quite new, but even still it has a long history. We walked around the outside taking it all in. We eventually made our way inside and took a tour of the interior, which was impressive. Generally the wonderful spring weather and the brilliant views of the castle and surrounding environs made for a very pleasant day out of Prague. The trip home was a little bit of a spoiler, as our bus was full and we had to stand for over an hour in a sweltering old bus. However we eventually managed to get seats, though not together, for the rest of the ride home.
Photos

The (Oval) Office

2007-04-13T12:30:00.001+02:00

I saw this on a friends page and thought it was funny. Enjoy!

A Day at the Races

2007-04-12T18:44:00.002+02:00

We got a long weekend for Easter and so Megan and I decided to have our first in house party since she moved in with me and in fact it's the first time I've had a party since I moved into this flat last June. We decided to have a little game night and invited only a few people, but Rob and Marta came out since Rob really wanted to play some Trivial Pursuit, though Marta was less enthusiastic. Also Anne was back in town and so she came and brought Jon, who we hadn't seen since Anne moved to Berlin right before our trip to Budapest. In any case the beer was cold, the game was fun, and Anne and Jon kicked all our asses. Around midnight Kelly, Scott (Curtis' new roommate), and Melissa arrived in time to play a second game. Everyone left around 2am.

On Sunday David in connection with the pub night crew organized a trip to Velka Chuchle for opening day at the races. Which mostly meant drinking beer, eating sausage, and watching horses run. The weather was a little cold, but the beer flowed, and the horses were fun to watch. I don't like to gamble as anyone who knows me will attest to, but the entry fee included a single 20kc bet, so I did bet on one race (which I of course lost). A few of our comrades had better luck including Andrea who I think must have been the big winner for the day, since whe won almost every race. After the 7th race we decided to hit the road before the crowds started heading for the buses, so Rob, Marta, Megan and I went back in to Andel with plans to go bowling. We hit a snag in that every bowling lane nearby seemed booked so we sat down for dinner. After dinner we all seemed a bit tired, and decided to call it a day. Photos

Monday was pretty quiet. Our shower broke, but I found a hardware store open and went to get supplies. While I was there I bought the stuff I've been needing in order to re-pot my plants. So basically, I repaired the shower and re-potted my plants.

Trnava

2007-03-19T18:44:00.000+01:00

So our 90 days was up again and continuing our Central European tour we decided it was finally time to go to Slovakia. Most people had told us that Bratislava is generally unimpressive. The nightlife is ok, but generally that's not what I travel for, so Megan and I decided to go somewhere else. Looking through our guidebook we found Trnava. The oldest city in Slovakia, a large portion of the medieval walls still surrounds the historic old town. It was once dubbed the Slovakian Rome because of the many churches inside the walls, and also it is the seat of the Archbishop. Sounded perfect to us, so we got up early on Friday and headed South.

We had found a hotel online that was near the center and also had reasonable rates. It also included an "American Cocktail Bar" which we thought might be fun to try out. Once we arrived in the afternoon, we had a little trouble getting into the hotel. It seems that tourist season hasn't really begun, and they seemed entirely unprepared for guests (when we got to our room we realized the breakers hadn't even been turned on for our floor). Once they realized we were there however they got us checked in and into our room which was actually quite nice, certainly nicer than our previous hostel stays. So we threw down our stuff and headed into town for lunch.

Though our little guidebook made a couple of mistakes about some of the places listed we managed to find a good little lunch spot, though Megan ordered some pasta that turned out to be too spicy and so we swapped plates during the meal. After lunch we started our walking tour of Trnava which begins at the Western Wall and the Bernolak Gate, which is the only surviving tower gate. Outside the gate is a very nice park that stretches along the river the length of the old town. On the way back in we passed the Church of St. James (1640) and headed into the central square where they have the Renaissance Municipal Tower and the 17th Century Trinity Column which was removed by the communists in 1948, but replace in 1989 by popular demand. On our way to lunch we had passed the Old Town Hall and also the Old Theater without noticing so we took notice of them now. The town square also includes the ubiquitous House of Culture found in most former communist cities, which is generally the ugliest structure around.
From there we wandered past Trinity Church (1729) and the baroque Church of St. Anne on our way to the university district where we saw the university Church of St John the Baptist. The guidebook describes this as severe on the outside though I didn't find it to be severe at all. He also describes the inside as lush baroque and rococo, but unfortunately we were not able to go in.
Leaving the university district we headed for the Cathedral of St. Nicholas (1380) that was rebuilt in the 17th century after the Archbishop arrived. Next to it sits the Archbishops palace, though it's difficult to see as it sits well back from the street and is fronted by lots of thick trees. Walking south from here is possibly the loveliest part of Trnava. Kapitulska Street is lined on either side with Burgher's Houses with renaissance facades and there is a tree lined garden running down the center.
From here we also stopped in to see all that remains of Trnava's Jewish heritage. There are two synagogues sitting very close to one another. One of them has been turned into a museum, while the other sits behind heavy fencing and has been abandoned to the elements and birds.
Our last real stop was the West Slovakian museum, housed in a former Clarist convent (1239). The museum had some interesting collections of local minerals and animals, as well as collections of local ceramics crafts, clothing, and photography. The proprietors were very friendly and even spoke a little English to us. After this we headed back to the hotel, passing on the way the final sight, the Church of St. Helen, which has never been rebuilt and is a great representative of an early Gothic structure.

Back at the hotel we rested and tried to decide where we were going to eat. We settled on a place called Phoenix which we had passed earlier in the day and was also recommended in the guidebook. We walked back through the old town noticing the strange blending of post communist economic depression, and newer middle class growth. Trnava is very close to Bratislava and seems to be a place that people are moving to in order to commute to Bratislava. When we arrived at Phoenix we had a brief scare since the place looked very closed, but we finally realized that you had to walk though the back garden and come in the back door to get in (still not tourist season). Once we found our way in we sat down and had a very pleasant meal with some delicious Slovakian wine. After dinner we went back to our hotel to give the cocktail bar a try. Generally they were a complete failure in my opinion, as every drink I ordered came out with something just a bit off about it, but we soon discovered that what they seem to do best is blender drinks, since that was all that the Slovaks seemed to be ordering. But it had been a long day and we decided to call it a night early. Photos
The next morning we packed up and headed to the train station so that we could spend a few hours in Bratislava on the way home (just to say we had). By the time we arrived the weather was turning bad, but we hopped a tram and headed into the historic district for lunch. We stopped at a locals/tourist restaurant called Prasna Brana, and had some Bryndzové halušky, a traditional Slovakian dish made of small dumplings covered with cheese and bacon. After that we wandered pretty aimlessly through old town Bratislava waiting for our train time. We did see some of the main sites including the castle, St. Martin Cathedral, Mirbach Palace, etc. as well as two of the three now famous life size bronze statues, the Peeper and the Frenchman. Finally our train time arrived and we hopped the tram back to the station and headed home. Photos

Karlstejn 2-The Americas

2007-03-07T11:21:00.001+01:00

After the success of the pub outing to Velke Pavlovice, George decided to take us to see The Americas at Karlstejn. This was to be a 15-20km hike through hilly terrain. We would see mines, mining pits, and lots of beautiful countryside. George warned us to bring wet weather clothing and flashlights. The pictures tell the story pretty well, but the trip was long and exhausting and a couple of times even dangerous. However, it was extremely fun and rewarding. The country was indeed very pretty and the old mining pits provide quite a spectacle. It reminded me how much I really enjoy hiking and the outdoors, and Megan (who acquitted herself quite well) even agreed that it would be nice to do more activities like this. At the end of the day we were all covered in mud and, for those less prepared, soaked through with rain. The sight of the little pub by the train station made us all very happy indeed. My pictures. George's Pictures.

Velke Pavlovice

2007-01-19T16:53:00.000+01:00

The Konvikt Pub crew decided to take an overnight trip to a little wine town in Moravia. Our friend Monca arranged everything and really did a hell of a job. The main part of the trip was a private wine tasting dinner. basically we showed up en masse, ate dinner, and then were presented with almost 20 wines from the cellar. In the middle of the wine tasting we took a break to have some smoked meats, and on the tables were several cheeses and nuts, etc. After the wine tasting we sang songs, since someone was nice enough to type up the lyrics to some American and Czech songs. I must say the Czechs outperformed us in this. After that I had had way to much to drink and after buying a bottle of wine I stumbled back to the hostel and went to bed. Apparently I was the only one who continued drinking heavily of the wine that was available. Everyone else went and found a ball and continued drinking and dancing all night. I promised George I would publish his version of events, so her it is...

My impression from the party

It started two month ago, of course, how another, in a pub. We were
drinking and dreaming about something new. Everybody knows that the
best plans start during the drinking Czech beer. We finished the third
beer round and mood around our table was better and better. We returned
to our old idea to go to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. We would book
a compartment; one night would run very quickly and in the morning we
would be in Bratislava, see the Bratislava Castle and other sights. The
trip would be nice, but it would be only for a few people. We would
like to share our company for more pub-goers (excursion; we do not like
pub trip on Thursday because we would lose each other, so we are only
sitting and drinking).
What about to go to cellar! It was happy idea but there was huge
problem to find somebody who would be able to organize this trip,
someone young, nice, who has experience with a large company. And we
found a volunteer Monca. It was a good choice. We got nice invitation;
we knew how many crowns we would pay for an accommodation, railway
ticket, testing wine and breakfast. We could not say about our trip to
everybody during limitation of the cellar. Everybody wanted to go with
us. We paid 400 Kč for booking.
On Saturday we were ready to go. We met in front of a cash desk of the
railway station Holešovice. Before we had had left a shop we bought
coffee, baguette and mineral water because of our loudly laughing. It
was amazing - everybody come (only with one exception - Shoen). We knew
each other from the pub, only Eva was unknown for most participants.
But she had a guitar and it was a good ticket for a good entertainment.
The train from Hamburg to Budapest had not any delay, we found our
places and without problems we reached to Brno. Only I was surprised
with a narrow seat. I would have thought over diet, so I bought big
sausage, two slices of bread, mustard and cola. It was nice time. Until
I digested it we changed the train and than it was only short time to
Velké Pavlovice, we got off but this station was wrong so that a
conductor sent us to the train back. The second attempt was OK and we
went to a hostel. We had to ask for direction a native woman, Monca
spoke Czech, and so we did not have any problems. We saw a pig-sticking
in front of a pub so we knew that this village is full of surprising.
The hostel was good. Only the bunk bad was unusual but it was from
irons so anybody could not be afraid of breaking it. We had free time
so we walked around the village, took photos and had a pre-dinner. We
noticed that there was a big hop. The girls had garbs and they looked
very nice. But our target was to go to the cellar. It was relatively a
long way. We speculated about taxi for a back journey. The house we
ordered dinner was large. The inner equipment was new and environment
was friendly. The ritual was easy. First, we had to full our stomachs,
and then we got two glasses. One glass for mineral water, second one
for sample of wine. The waiter poured his liquated gold and we had
well-educated speech about life and wine. I think we drank about
one-liter samples and ate a lot of fruits - banana, tangerine, and
pineapple. There was big amount of ham and sandwiches. The rooms were
decorated with naughty pictures (naked girl) and evaluations. My
favorite place was in front of a fireplace. After second dinner I was
absolutely full. I had to go to yard to see the night sky. The topic
program for me, was drinking of champagne and singing partly Czech and
English songs. Then I bought five bottles of Frankovka (350,- Kč), we
told goodbye and went to the hostel. I felt that my eyes are very small
(but happy). I did not know that finale would come. We went to a
typical Czech hop. It was not problem to get to the assembly room (it
was about 2 a.m.), atmosphere was excellent and we promptly started to
dance. Polka and waltz are the typical Czech dance. We enjoy themselves
till 4 a.m. About a journey to the hostel I know only a little. The
night I would let without a commentary. When I wake up I realized that
the sun is shining so that I decided to go to the center of the village
to sightseeing. It was a nice walk. Breakfast was light, some
English-speaking people were pale, but everybody was attending. We
decided (Czech group) that we could pay this breakfast from money which
remained of canoe trip (June 2006). I do not write about the return
journey because I was sleeping. It was really the good test-wine party.
My wife commended me for good wine I brought. I have to thank Monca for
the invitation.

Thank

George

Pictures

Christmas

2007-01-03T15:36:00.000+01:00

I finally made it home.

After nearly 15 months without seeing my friends and family I finally got on a plane and reentered the US. I spent two weeks mostly relaxing with family and being chauffeured about the state by my good friend Stacy. Unfortunately, it being Christmas time, I didn't get to see everyone I wanted, though I did get to meet Megan's family since we did sort of a family meet exchange. In any case I took almost no pictures, and except for just being there, nothing of great importance happened. It was lovely to see my beautiful nieces, and get to spend time with them. I love and miss you all. Happy New Years'

Thanksgiving

2006-11-27T15:20:00.000+01:00

If you have been reading my blog for a long time (ha) then you have probably read about my adventures around thanksgiving last year. This year I wanted to do it up a little bigger, and hopefully with a years more experience have a little less trouble. I arranged for some friends of mine to host the party, since their house has more space, and thn basically invited everyone I know, and told them to invite everyone they know, etc. The party was to be potluck like last year, with me producing the Turkey and stuffing again. I didn't want to have the same trouble with the turkey again this year, and a British friend of mine named Allan told me about a special expat butcher that could probably get me a good one. I found their website and reserved a nice big turkey for the party, and then sat back and waited for the big day. As the day approached I made sure everyone was up to speed, that there would be plenty of food and booze, and warned our hosts that I would have to be at their house bright and early to prepare the turkey for the evening meal.

The problem was, I discovered, the friendly butcher had not reserved me a turkey. I went to the shop and was told there were no turkeys left, and that I was out of luck. In a state of near panic I called the mans cellphone. Understandably he doesn't answer that line, and only returns calls. Anyway he returned my call and I told him what had happened. He was very nice on the phone and certainly sympathetic. He promised there would be a turkey for me. The day before the party I went to pick it up, and sure enough there was a turkey waiting for me. A turkey weighing in at right around 20#!!! Unclear if it would even fit into a tiny czech oven, I warned my hosts, that I might be improvising in their kitchen.

Preparations actually went quite smoothly. I was up bright and early and trekking my 20# bird across Prague. I had to wash it in the bathtub, and we had to invent a special oven pan using large quantities of aluminum foil, but in the end it was possibly the best turkey I have ever eaten. (Also the freshest, as I am pretty sure my friendly butcher went out and killed it for me). It took pretty much all day to cook it and filled the oven to capacity, but it came out beautiful. My stuffing (thanks again Joan) came out perfect, and was often cited as the best anyone had ever had.

We had a pretty fine turn out with I think a maximum number around 20 at any time, and there was more food than we could possibly consume (some of Jason's Czech students prepared potato pancakes as well). Several people got to celebrate their first thanksgiving which pleased me greatly. Toward the end of the evening everything devolved into drunken chaos, but that was fun, too.

Finally the party ran out of booze and the remaining guests all tromped down to the nearest pub to play darts and finish getting completely hammered. God bless Thanksgiving. Megan took most of the pictures since I again forgot my camera, but I don't have them available. Perhaps I will post them later (update: Photos)

Halloween

2006-10-30T15:00:00.000+01:00

Generally Halloween was pretty quiet. It's not really celebrated here, but we got invited to a party of a friend of Curtis'. Megan was clever enough to have her costume shipped over from the states, but I had to throw something together. In the end I went as an 80's business man (very original), but Megan went as a flapper. Her costume was great but she felt a little self-conscious wearing it on the way to the party. I have basically stolen Curtis' picture since I forgot to bring my camera.

Budapest

2006-09-30T13:26:00.000+02:00

In order to facilitate the posting of this blog, I have basically just copied Megan's letter home about our trip to Budapest. Her message was much more thorough than I could have hoped to write, so I will let her tell our story. So please enjoy...

Day 1: The night before we left, our friend and fellow Glossa teacher, Anne, left Prague forever. She’s moved to Berlin so that she can earn real money before heading back to the states. With any luck, we’ll get there at some point to visit her. Anyway, Mark and I didn’t stay long, one because it was an outdoor event and it started to rain; and two, because we did have a train to catch the next day. Anyway, our train left a little before 1pm. It’s about a six and a half hour trip, though the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic before arriving in Hungary. So, I now have two Slovak stamps in my passport, even though I never got off the train. Other than being crowded, the trip was alright. Our train arrived right on time, at 7:30 and we headed right to the hostel.

Unfortunately, our first encounter with a Hungarian was also our first encounter with a rude, unhelpful service-person. We wanted to buy a book of ten metro tickets, because every time you get on a train or a tram, you have to validate a new ticket. Of course, we only had big bills because we had just withdrawn money, and the minute the woman saw that, she “forgot” all of her English and absolutely refused to help us. Luckily, we found another ticket counter with a much nicer lady, and were soon on our way. A note about Hungarian money here, the basic unit of measure is called a forint. 10 forints are equal to 1 Czech crown; and thus, 200 forints make an American dollar. I withdrew approximately 20 000 forints, or 100 dollars for the weekend.

Anyway, we found our hostel without trouble; they gave very good directions. After dropping off our bags we headed to Ferenc ter, a large square covered end to end with restaurants. The one that we wanted to go to was packed, so we ended up at pretty good pizza place instead. Where the Czechs specialize in beer, the Hungarians may well have come up with the whole idea of wine. Needless to say, I was pleased; over the weekend, we tried at least five Hungarian wines, red and white, and enjoyed all of them.

After dinner, we decided to see one sight before calling it a night. We walked down Andrassy Boulevard, the main street of historic Pest (in case you don’t know, Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube), to Hero’s Square. In former times, the Communists staged State events there, complete with parading soldiers and tanks and such. The center of the square is a tower and statues commemorating the Magyar conquest of Hungary in the ninth century. The mounted horsemen along the bottom of the statue are the tribal chiefs who led the invasion, and believe me, they are a scary lot. One of the amusing things we noted was that the Hungarians have a much more militant history than the Czechs and they are quite proud of it. Around the outside of the square are statues of 16 historical leaders of the Hungarian people, such as King Stephan I, the first Christian king (I think the son of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, but I’m not sure) and the leader of the 1858 anti-Hapsburg rebellion (the Hapsburgs, of course, being the ruling dynasty of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until it was dissolved in World War I). After taking bunches of pictures, we headed back to the hostel, as I was cold and tired.

The hostel was pretty nice, much cleaner than the one in Cesky Krumlov. We had a bed in a large dorms, with something like 8 people in each. The beds were a bit hard, but nothing out of the common European way; the pillows, however, would be dwarfed by the average throw pillow in Mom’s house. In other words, they were small. I was asleep before my head hit mine, so not-to-worry too much.

Day 2: I was awoken Friday morning by singing! Our hostel was across the street from a music school, and every morning, there was singing and pianos and all kinds of lovely sounds. One of the lovely things about this hostel is that it provides breakfast, unlike our last one. It wasn’t much, just a bit of cereal and bread with butter, cheese, or jam. There was also the bitterest coffee I’ve ever tasted; apparently Hungarians like it that way [I liked it too]. Anyway, after a filling breakfast and a bit of getting ready, we headed out for our first full day in Budapest.

We started our day in an area of Pest called the Inner City. Our first stop was actually a peak at the Underground Railway Museum. Budapest is home to the oldest underground metro line still in operation in Europe. We used that particular line a lot, and you can feel the age of it; the trains are shorter and narrower than other lines and the stations have a decidedly Victorian era look to them. It took about five seconds for us to realize that Mark was not doing his usual impeccable job of navigating, so I commandeered the guidebook and did my best to keep control of it for the rest of the trip (every time Mark got his hands on it, we got lost!). From the museum, we headed out to see a plethora of churches, an 18^th century university, and a handsome park (I took flower pictures just for Mom). We also saw the Pest County Hall, which is now an EU government building at some point. I was a bit hesitant to go in, as there seemed to be guards and such. We started in but someone immediately asked us something in Hungarian (an impossible language, which I did not even attempt, beyond “ turn left on the street with the long name; then right on the street with the longer name”). I called to Mark to stop him, as he was a bit ahead of me. The man hesitated and then asked if we were tourists. We admitted as much, and then he said “Oh, please, please, go right ahead.” Can you believe it? That’s the nicest reaction I’ve ever gotten to being a tourist. Anyway, the inner courtyards, the purpose of our visit where lovely, brightly decorated walls and lovely statues.

Anyway, our midday stop was the Central Market Hall. The ground floor is a regular food market – so we got to watch some elderly Hungarians do their shopping – and the top floor is a tourist market. We wandered round there for a while, and I was sorely tempted to get Ben a Hungarian costume (I decided against it, since I thought his Daddy might object to puffy sleeves). We ate lunch in a cafeteria style restaurant on the second floor (which despite it’s casualness had a violinist). We both had peppers stuffed with sausage and rice, mine with rice and Mark with potatoes. They were quite tasty, not at all spicy and I believe quite Hungarian.

From there, we saw more churches and historic buildings, including a pharmacy with old fashioned wooden drawers and cabinets, a Serbian Orthodox Church, and the main pedestrian street, Vaci utca. The Orthodox church was quite interesting, as I have never been in one before. There isn’t as clear of an alter, and where we would have a crucifix, there is a wall covered in painting of different Biblical figures and scenes. We ended the Pest walk at the Chain Bridge, which was the first permanent span across the Danube, built in 1849. Like every other bridge in Budapest, it was dynamited by the retreating Nazis at the end of World War II. It was restored and reopened 100 years to the day of it’s original inauguration in 1949. At both ends of the bridge there are growling stone lions. Legend has it that the sculptor committed suicide on realizing that the lions’ tongues had been forgotten. So, across the bridge and beautiful Danube to Buda we went. We took the funicular (a peculiar train-sort-of-thing that takes one up steep hills) up the hill to the castle district, while enjoying the view of Pest across the river). At the exit, there is the statue of an eagle perched on a high tower; this is Turul, the mythical creature that lead the Magyars to Hungary. The palace has now been converted into museums, but is still quite lovely. From there, we headed up to Holy Trinity Square, which should be home to a plague column (cf Cesky Krumlov), but it has been taken down for repairs. It is also home to one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen, known as the Matthias Church. The Hilton Hotel of Budapest is also there; it is an award winning structure which incorporates two ruins. Now, what I don’t understand is why, if they are capable of building something so beautiful in Budapest, they built the monstrosity that passes for a hotel here in Prague. Behind the church and hotel is a hundred year old structure called the Fisherman’s Bastion, named such because if was built on the site of an old fish market. Mostly, it’s a viewing point from which to see Pest. It’s pretty enough in itself but decidedly new.

So at this point we were understandably foot sore and tired. So, we stopped at a little café-bookshop for a rest and a drink. I had more lovely Hungarian wine, while Mark sampled the local beer, no Pilsner but palatable enough. At the point the battery in my camera died, so Mark was responsible for pictures for the rest of the day; luckily, I brought my charger so I do have pictures from the next day. From there, we saw a Medieval Jewish Prayer House, which was turned into apartments after the Jews were driven out of Budapest after the Christians retook it from the Turks in 1686. Another highlight from the castle district is described by the guidebook thus: “This is one of the two streets in the Castle District that are best suited for viewing a mysterious Hungarian contribution to Gothic architecture: niches of unknown function that were build into the entryways of medieval buildings.”

Next came the Mary Magdalene tower, once part of a larger 13^th century church that was destroyed in World War II. After this we tried to go to the medieval tunnel network that runs underneath the entire castle district (it’s 15Km long!), but they were having a private event and it is a lot of walking, so we decided to wait until the next day to tour it. Our final stop was the Museum of Military History, since Mark likes that sort of thing and it was free. On the way, we passed large groups of children playing the most inexplicable game. They had numbers tied around their foreheads, and it seemed that any time groups with different colored numbers encountered one another, everyone had to press their number against a tree. Crazy Hungarians! Anyway, we weren’t in the museum long, as it closed at 5 and we got there around 4:40.

We headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. I was looking forward to a bit of sitting, on the funicular and then on the metro. Unfortunately, the funicular was broken, so while we got a full refund (even for our ride up!), we had to walk all the way down the hill. We did eventually find our way back to the hostel and after a couple of minutes of sitting and complaining about our feet (well, I was complaining anyway), we went to dinner. Following the recommendations of the guidebook, we went in search of a traditional Hungarian restaurant. Unfortunately, when we found the recommended place, there was a sign on the door thanking people for their patronage but explaining that after 25 years in business, the owner was retiring. Fancy that. Luckily, we had picked a backup restaurant, which was not closed. It actually turned out to be wonderful. We ended up sharing a couple of dishes – Paprika chicken (so entirely different from Mom’s that we need to change the name of one of them!) and stuffed cabbage (a cabbage leaf wrapped around multiple types of meat and cooked cabbage) – along with red wine this time. The waiter was excellent. He’s been at the restaurant for over 30 years and is a wonderful, old-world, proper sort of man. It was all terribly tasty and filling. After dinner, we found a lovely little pub near the hostel and had a couple more glasses of wine while chatting and local-watching. We ended up having another early night; I’m sure I was asleep before midnight.

Day 3: Saturday was our last full day in Budapest, so mostly we knew that we needed to see everything that we had missed Friday: St. Stephan’s Basilica, Parliament, the Labyrinth, the Terror House, and a bathhouse.

After breakfast, we started out towards the Nyugati Railway Station. It was built by the Eiffel company (best known for the Parisian tower of the same name), but the Hungarians are not overly concerned with its upkeep. It’s a bit dirty and now home to a McDonald’s and a disco. From the station, we headed out to St. Stephan’s and Parliament. St. Stephan’s, named for Hungary’s first Christian king, is the largest church in the country. It is absolutely stunning, and apparently so sturdy that it was used to safeguard important documents and artwork during the bombardments of World War II. The decoration is stunning (gilding, gilding everywhere) and on such a scale that I can’t imagine the mind that conceived of it.

Parliament is equally impressive; “it mixes a predominant neo-Gothic style with a neo-Renaissance dome” and is the most identifiable landmark on the Pest side of the Danube. Unfortunately, do to an unruly protest the previous week (in which the state television station was temporarily overrun and 150 people, 102 of which were police officers, were injured) the building itself was heavily guarded, with barricades preventing anyone from getting too close. When we were there, the protests had turned into a cultural fair. Crazy Hungarians.

At about 11am, we arrived at the House of Terror, 60 Andrassy Boulevard. This seemingly innocuous residential building was home to political torture and murder under two separate, bloody regimes. Near the end of WWII, the Nazis set up a Hungarian puppet regime, know as ArrowCross. Under this government, Budapest’s Jewish population, which had thus far weathered the war relatively intact was set upon with an unmatched vehemence (including people being tied together and thrown alive into the freezing waters of the Danube). In addition, anyone considered politically dangerous was imprisoned and tortured and at times executed at 60 Andrassy. As the Soviet Army rolled through Hungary, which much difficultly, especially in moving from Buda to Pest, they brought with them the obligatory political officers, whose first task was to set up a political police (indeed, Orwell’s “thought police”), which immediately took over the Andrassy building, settling into nearly 50 years of uninterrupted savagery. Boys as young as 16 were imprisoned, tortured, and executed here. One famous case had to do with a priest and several Catholic schoolboys, accused to killing Soviet soldiers (a ridiculously invented charge), the priest and three of the boys (ages 16-17) were executed and the rest sentenced to hard labor. It was an incredibly moving, difficult tour. The history, the suffering of the place was incredible.

The final room of the tour was the “hall of victimizers” where the pictures of members of ArrowCross and Communists were hung. I was amazed as to how many of them were alive and seemingly unpunished. I really want to believe that at least some of those people were not truly “evil at heart” but instead maybe through coercion, confusion, or simply the need to protect those closest to them, ended up in a role they didn’t really want. But then, who really knows?

So, after the Terror House tour, it was about 1pm and it was lunch time. We actually ended up back at the same restaurant that we couldn’t get into on Thursday. It was maybe the best meal I had in Budapest – chicken with mozzarella and tomatoes and potatoes. It was lovely. Anyway, the Terror House had taken longer than we anticipated, so we were left with some choices to make. There were three time-consuming things left that we wanted to do: the caves, the bathhouse, and Statue Park (where all the old Communist statues are on display). After some discussion, we decided that we were Communisted-out so was nixed Statue Park and compromised on the other two – the caves we would do that evening and go to the bathhouse the next morning, since our train didn’t leave until 2:30.

The caves were quite interesting; they are a natural formation, though further excavated and fortified by generations of people. They are now decorated in a kind of “evolution of humanity” theme, starting with reproductions of cave drawings until you get to what’s called the Renaissance grotto, with a fountain that flows with red wine instead of water (a waste of perfectly good wine, I think). There’s also a sort of puzzle room, intended for kids, but I found I was almost too much of a wuss to do it myself. The game is that, while you were exploring the caves, someone has stolen the sun, and you have to find it again. You enter through a door and grab hold of a little cord along one wall. Once the door closes, you are plunged into absolute darkness, and you have to follow the cord around a maze to “find the sun.” It’s quite an experience if you’ve got a bit of claustrophobia or you’re just a big old scared-y-cat (like me), because at times, it feels as though the walls are closing in around you or that with your next step you’ll drop off the face of the earth. Neither happened, thankfully, and we eventually “found the sun” and our way out. The final section of the caves was the “caves of the future” which was a mock archeological dig from 40 million years in the future. They found things like shoe prints, cell-phones, and coke bottles embedded in the rock. Very amusing, though a bit silly.

The caves took us several hours to complete, so it was nearly dinner time before we got out. We wandered around the castle district and looked at some souvenir shops (I ended up buying myself something, I can never resist spending money) before heading on a tour that would take us towards our chosen restaurant in an area of Buda known as Watertown. We walked for a bit down a prettyish main street known as Fo Utca until we reached our dinner destination for the evening, which was a French restaurant. It was a bit more expensive than I had hoped, but the food was very good and the service excellent. In general, we were amazed by the level of English and general politeness that we encountered. Most places like Prague get a bit tired of us tourists, but we were made to feel very welcome in Budapest. Mark had some sort of sweetbread thing (which I think is not really bread, right?) and I had a turkey and curry dish. It wasn’t the least be spicy but still quite tasty. So, after dinner, we headed out around Watertown to see several churches, a Capuchin Church and two Catholic ones – St. Anne’s and St. Elizabeth’s. St. Anne’s was almost destroyed in the 1950s by the communist leader who thought that Stalin would be offended by seeing it from the Parliament windows across the river. Fortunately, that plan was never carried out. We ended our pleasant, if not spectacular walk at the Margaret Bridge (there’s also an Elizabeth bridge!) and headed back to the hostel. We were both so exhausted that we turned in almost immediately on getting there.

Day 4: We got up very early and pack everything we could, except our bathing suits, so that we could head to the Gellert Baths for our last morning in Budapest. Gellert is both a stunning, five star hotel and Budapest’s most famous bathhouse. The entry fees are a little confusing, but in the end we figured out that for 3000 forints each, we got up to four hours in the pool and thermal baths as well as private changing cabins (one for each of us, of course!). If we stayed less than four hours, we would get a bit of a refund. After changing, we headed into the main pool area. It’s absolutely beautiful. Our first stop was the mixed gender (thus fully clothed!) thermal bath area, where we sat and enjoyed the waters. It was just perfect after two days of hard walking. After relaxing, chatting, and people watching, we went into the pool for a while. The water was so cold, I almost couldn’t get in. To own the truth, Mark had to pull me in. We swam a couple of laps and enjoyed the jets and cool water for a while before heading back to the thermal bath again.

Unfortunately, we could only stay about 90 minutes and then had to leave so that we wouldn’t miss our train. After a good shower to get the sulfur water out of my hair, we left and headed back to the hostel for lunch and our bags. We went to a restaurant recommended by the hostel manager, which was quite good but turned out to be very expensive. In fact, we ran out of forints! Thankfully, we both had Euros on us and they let us pay the remainder in that. Unfortunately, the waitress did the math very wrong and charged us 20 Euro for what should have been 2 Euro. It was clearly an honest mistake which we didn’t catch until after we left. I was really upset, and Mark offered to go argue, but I figured it wasn’t worth it.

So all that was left was to go to the train station. The beginning of the ride was nice and quite comfortable, until we reached Bratislava. I think the entire population of Slovakia got on the train. There were people and bags completely filling the hall. I was getting hungry, but we decided to wait until Brno, hoping people would get off. Enough did to let us squeeze up to the dining car. Unfortunately, however, it was full, mostly with people not interested in eating, who just wanted a place to sit. I can’t blame them entirely, in retrospect, but at the time I was so hungry and exhausted that I just lost it and started crying. We stood at the door to the dining car for about 30 minutes when finally somebody from first class got up and left and we took their table. The food was passable, if not great, and mostly it was food! After eating, we went back to our seats for the end of the journey. I got home around 10, I think. Exhausted but pleased. Pictures.

Cesky Krumlov

2006-09-08T10:48:00.000+02:00

Megan and I finally decided to do a longer trip. There are several very picturesque locations around the CZ, and we landed on Cesky Krumlov. This little city in South Bohemia is entirely protected as an Unesco Historical site. This of course means that the whole town in old, and mostly beautiful. While I'm sure this must sometimes be annoying to the residents, it makes for a wonderful weekend getaway. We woke up very early on Saturday to get to the bus and spent much of the early morning snoozing on the long ride there. When we arrived however we walked down the hill toward the town, marveling at its beauty as it came into site. We made it to our Hostel and dropped of our stuff, grabbed our guidebook and hit the town. The whole town is on a tight peninsula in the river, and so is actually quite small. After grabbing a light lunch we spent the entire afternoon wandering the streets taking photos, and reading about the history of this quaint little town. This is also where I learned about sgraffiti, which is a form of decoration on the outside of buildings. You will see many examples in my pictures.
We basically exhausted ourselves wandering the town, beginning with the castle, and then moving through every site we could find. By nightfall we were exhausted and hungry. A friend had recommended a little restaurant on the Vltava that prepares authentic medieval food. Though it was chilly, Megan and I managed to find a table sitting on the bank of the river (which we shared with several other tourists throughout the evening, though none of them spoke English). The food was excellent, though I did gorge myself a little much.
After dinner we wandered about the town looking for a reasonably quiet pub, and accidentally found ourselves in a residential part of town. We turned around to go back, when we heard music coming from the river along a little alley. We followed the sound (johnny Cash) to a little locals pub, where we ordered a beer and spent a couple hours talking, drinking and listening to music. After this we decided we had had a long enough day, and went to bed early.
The next morning we decided to go for a little horseback ride through the nearby hills. They insisted we wear helmets which was briefly a problem when they couldn't find one to fit my giant head. The ride was quite nice, but a little restrictive. Afterwards we basically had lunch and sampled one of the local beers and then headed back up the hill for our bus. Pictures.

Krivoklat

2006-09-01T10:41:00.000+02:00

We made a short day trip to a castle called Krivoklat on Saturday. The town was tiny leaving little to do outside the castle, and while the castle was very interesting, it was also quite small. We had to hike up a little hill to get there providing a lovely view of the Czech countryside, and we got to play around on the walls a bit, and visit the Krivoklat dragon. Afterwards we had a very good traditional Czech meal at a little restaurant situated below the castle walls, but sitting on a cliff overlooking the river. Pictures

Scottish Festival

2006-08-20T10:35:00.000+02:00

This weekend we made a trip with our friends Rob and Marta. Rob claims Scottish heritage and definitely enjoys their history and such, so we went to the Czech Scottish Festival. It was being held in North Bohemia at a relatively new castle. The grounds were beautiful and we spent a good portion of the day just wandering around enjoying the nature. There were a few problems like the overwhelming presence of yellow jackets everywhere and the lines for refreshments and food were ridiculous, but otherwise it was the weather was very nice and we got to see a lot of kilts. They had displays form several different Scottish eras, and we saw a little parade. In the end the most important event, the Tabor Toss, didn't start until after we had to leave to catch our train. I did get to see most of the birds of prey show, however, which really made my day. Check out the pictures

Kost

2006-08-06T15:47:00.000+02:00

So we found a castle that has never been Baroqued. Dead in the center of a part of the Czech Republic called Bohemian Paradise. The castle is unique in that it was not built on a hill or mountain. The owner wanted it to be hard to find so he built it on a small stone outcropping in a valley. You hardly notice it until you are upon it. In fact we had to hike there from the nearest city in the rain, and we didn't even realize we had arrived until we were practically at the door. However the castle was really impressive and still maintains the impression that it was built for war or defense, not for rich people to hang out in. Also Kost is still privately owned which is where I got the idea that it would be really cool to own a castle. How cool would it be to wander out of your castle in a bathrobe and cup of coffee and chat with your tourists?
Anyway we took the castle tour and lots of pictures of the surrounding countryside. This part of Bohemia has dozens of castles in close proximity so you can even see several of them along the way. We had lunch at a little local place where I think I ate a sparrow, but am not quite sure. It was after this trip I think that Megans mom coined the term "castling" to describe our weekend jaunts. Pictures...

Konopiste

2006-07-16T15:39:00.000+02:00

Going through the castle map we happened upon another nearby castle, that I noticed was right next to my friends Kate's home. We decided to give it a shot, and I texted Kate to tell her we were coming. We took the train, which took almost an hour, mainly because it's a communter train, and Kate met us at the station. The walk up to the castle is mostly through the castle grounds which are now a state park. The day was sunny and warm and a walk through the gardens was very relaxing and fun.
The castle is the first I've seen that has bears in residence in the former moat. So you see several pictures of that. We wandered the grouds for a while, includin gthe famous rose gardens. Eventually Kate had to leave, and Megan and I stopped for lunch at the Barrel Restaurant for some Klobasa. We went back up to the castle and did one of the tours which I think we both really enjoyed. The last owner of the castle was the guy whose assasination sparked WW1. Afterwards we walked back into teh nearby town of Benesov and got some pictures of their cathedral and what appears to be a single remaining Cathedral wall fragment. Someday I will translate all the explanatory sign I take pictures of. Speaking of which...

Dresden

2006-07-03T15:27:00.000+02:00

My 90 days was up. I had to get out of the country, but I was also broke, so I decided on Dresden Megan had been there twice before and had had a reasonably bad trip each time. I was hoping to at least have a pleasant day. In fact I was very happy. We followed a walking tour out of Megan's guidbook which took us around the city to see all the beautiful and historic buildings. This year is a big anniversary for Dresden and they have been trying really hard for over a decade to get the place repaired from WW2 and 50 years of communism. They've done a great job. The only scaffolding was over the front of the royal palace. You can see from my photos that the skyline has been fully repaired. We had lots of time so we strolled for most of the day, and it was mostly not too hot. There are some really romantic spots and lots of fountains and parks in Dresden so it was nice to be strolling along. We managed to have some traditional german food in the shadow of a beautiful cathedral. I also had my first opportunity to compare authentic German beer to my beloved Czech beer, and while the German beer was good, I must say it doesnt compare favorably. In the end Megan finally had a nice visit to Dresden and I got my passport stamp. Pictures...

Stare-Boleslav

2006-06-25T15:18:00.000+02:00

Aidrian informed us of a little town practically on the Prague public transit system that has a castle and such, so Megan and I got up Saturday and made our way to Stare Boleslav. This is actually two towns on either side of the Elbe (Czech Labem), that united as one town. One one side is a little "castle" that protected the river crossing and on the other are several very pretty churches. We went to the castle which is not fully renovated but very cute, and then crossed the river. The main church is very old and while the Romans were never in the town it's built in Romanesque style. Inside are some of the earliest frescoes in Europe. There was a wedding in the church so we moved on and explored the town a bit promising to return. When we got back the wedding was over so we went in. While we were looking about this young man came and said something in Czech I responded telling him that we didn't speak Czech. THen he fetched an older woman and said something to her. Finally in English he asked if we would like a tour. We said sure and we joined a group who was following the older woman and he basically translated for her to us. The church has a shrine that was an older church and is the place where Saint Winceslas was murdered. For many years his body was entombed here, but was later removed to Prague.
After the main tour, the young man took us out and showed us the fresoes, which had been locked up before. He offerred to take us to see the other church as well, but we declined, having accepted enough from the young man.
Afterwards we went to a late lunch in town, and then headed home. Pictures...

Karlstein

2006-06-11T15:11:00.000+02:00

The nearest and most popular castle to Prague, besides Prague castle, is Karlstein. It's a fairy tale hilltop castle surrounded by woodlands and a quaint little town that has basically been renovated to serve the tourists. Curtis had been there before but had told me that he would want to return. So Megan and I grabed him for a daytrip out. The train trip is really quite short, and we were walking up the hill before we knew it. The castle is really everything everyone says it is, especially when you see it for the first time from afar. We toured around the castle, and then went for a trop on the wooded trails. I felt a little bad because we happened upon a mother deer in a clearing and scared her away form her baby, but we left the baby in peace, so hopefully all was well. What's worse is that on the way home I got hit with a huge allergy attack and was sick the rest of the weekend. Megan was very kind and took care of me, and even wandered around aimlessly trying to find a weekend pharmacy to buy drugs, but we failed. Pictures...

Megan's Birthday

2006-05-28T06:23:00.000+02:00

So I write this at the conclusion of a birthday party. I have spent the last two days making the Megan's daily routine and the preparations for her party appear as effortless as possible. On thursday night I snuck a decent frying pan into her house, and on Friday morning (after a secret trip to the grocery store) I prepared home made pancakes. I also created a wonderful apple syrup from scratch which was just perfect.
For the party saturday night Megan wanted a pretty wide variety of snack foods from a list of potentials I had sent her in advance. I cooked a few of them before the guests arrived, but kept a few in reserve. Once everyone began to arrive I basically turned myself into host so that Megan could mix mingle and drink without worrying about everyone else. I kept the food table fully stocked so that everyone had plenty and the wine and booze flowing. Curtis ans Anne began doing yoga and Adrian and the girls ocupied the "jukebox" to keep the music entertaining. In the end I let the last few people out around 6am (Megan had been asleep for hours).
Overall I would say that Megan had a very pleasant birthday, and that I helped make that happen.

The Golden Pig

2006-05-23T15:03:00.000+02:00

I was teaching a class the other day that mostly revolved around advertising. I asked the student to describe for me her favorite tv commercial. She thought a bout it for a while and was describing it. Basically it's a scene of a father and daughter in the woods talking. They are having a nice little chat when the conversation rolls around to the christmas golden pig...
"Excuse me?" I interrupted, being a terrible mistake for a teacher when the student is producing well, but I thought there might be a translation error.
"The Christmas golden pig," she repeated.
"Pig? Like oink oink pig?"
"Yes"
"It's golden?" She gave me a couple of czech words which basically mean gold covered or gilded, which verified that I had not misheard, and that she had not mistranslated.
"What does this have to do with Christmas?" I asked a little befuddled. I mean I understand that all cultures celebrate holidays differently and I have already come to terms with the fact that the presents at christmas here are delivered by a flying baby jesus, but golden pigs?? Come on! I thought she was pulling my leg. However it turns out that children here are taught to fast all day for Christmas until the evening meal. If they manage not to eat at all they are promised to see the golden pig. Apparently if you see the golden pig then you are supposed to get a wish or something to that effect.
I had basically forgotten whatever it was I was supposed to be teaching, and kept mumbling things about gloden pigs for Christmas.
For the next week I went around asking everyone if they knew that there was a Golden Christmas Pig. I keep imagining gilded pigs running around the Czech countryside hiding from naughty little children who eat on Christmas.

Melnik

2006-05-22T15:20:00.000+02:00

On the long train ride back from Kutna Hora, Megan and I read through the guidebook that we had carried there. One of the more interesting and easily reached places is a small town just north of Prague called Melnik. There is of course a cathedral of note, a small castle (really more of a palace), but most interesting is that it lies at the heart of Bohemian wine country. Generally Bohemia is not known for wine, but this little town and the fields that surround it are dedicted to this and have been for centuries. Most of the vines orginated in the burgandy growing area of France. After the last few weeks of heavy walking, Megan and I thought wine country sounded just fantastic, so on Saturday morning we got up and headed to the bus. It was a quick one hour ride and we had stopped to get a map in advance this time, so that we might not get lost repeatedly. Melnik was actually quite small and we managed pretty well. Shortly after we arrived, there was a small parade through the center of town and we stopped in the square to watch it pass. After that we went for a little lunch, which unfortunately took forever, but soon we were on our way to the wine cellar. The church was definitely worth seeing, and has an attached bone church, which we missed (though I have heard it is unimpressive compared to the one at Kutna Hora). We went into the castle and found the area for the wine cellar tour. Here's how it works. You pay some money and they send you alone into the wine cellar to look around and read about it's history and the history of the region. Then you go back to the shop and they hand you a small wine glass, and send you down into another part of the cellar where there are several barrels topped with the various vintages from the winery. They give you a description of the different wines to read and leave you alone to taste and try them. Megan and I managed to get through most of them and it was fun to try them and compare them. Oh I almost forgot, they give you little bits of bread to clean your palate between bottles. Finally the place was closing up, and Megan and I had to make our way back to the bus and head back to town. we cooked dinner that night creating a fun little chicken parmesan, and then we were both beat so we crashed out. Pictures..

Kutna Hora (take two)

2006-05-15T14:45:00.000+02:00

It turns out that Megan had never been to see the bone church, and when I went to Kutna Hora that's all I saw since the group ended up at a pub getting drunk (http://markwright.blogspot.com/2005/11/rest-of-weekend.html). We decided to take a daytrip down there and this time see as much as possible. We got up early on Saturday and hopped a train. An hour later we were walking over to the bone church (kostnice). I made the trip inside a second time, and it was worth seeing again. This time there was more daylight which made it less creepy, but still very interesting. Megan took lots of pictures, and we headed off to explore. The first thing I wanted to do was find the little pub that we had stopped in at last time I was there, and despite a few wrong turns I managed to find it. It had started to rain a bit while we were searching so I hoped that we could go in and have a drink while we waited out the rain. unfortunately the place was closed, so we had to continue to walk in the rain.
From there we were heading into the main part of Kutna Hora where there is an incredible church and several other sights worth seeing. unfortunately I took a wrong turn and the map sucked so we had a little touble finding the place, but eventually we got there. I was very excited and we wandered around looking at everything for several hours. The big cathedral (St. Barbara's) was really something. Anyway, after that we headed off to get something to eat and drink and found a great little restaurant and brewery called Dacicky's and had some spectacular food and great beer. After that we headed back to the train, but I managed to get us lost again, and we took a very scenic route. In the end we made it back, but the train was rerouted and took us two hours to get home stopping at every little village that had put out a wooden patio by the railway.
We finally made it home however, and met up with Scott, Adrian, Matt, and several others for some fun latin dance music at a little local dance pub. Megan and I called it a night around 2am however, as it had been a long day. Because I had been there before I stupidly didn't bring my camera so the photos are from my camera phone. Pictures...

Vysehrad

2006-05-08T14:33:00.000+02:00

Megan had never visited Vysehrad castle which is a shame because it's actually on the Prague metro, so I decided to take her. I myself had not been there since Curtis and I went in November (http://markwright.blogspot.com/2005/11/day-out-with-curtis.html). This time the trees and flowers were all in bloom, and it was realy much more like walking through a great big park with small ruins laying here and there. I was able to guide Megan a bit, since I had been there with Curtis, and I knew a little more about it from studies sinec that time. Also, though I can by no means speak Czech, my ability to read it has made some small progress, and I was able to read more of the signs and such since last I was there. Also since I had been there last, they have opened a new little museum called the Goticky Sklep (Gothic Cellar). There were several wonderful displays from the architectural digs about the site, as well as history and legend about Vysehrad. I found it very educational and entertaining.
The weather held out for us most of the day and we wandered through the parks and flowering trees. Eventually we headed to the beer garden that sits atop the hilll overlooking the city. We ordered drinks and sat outside, but the weather turned on us finally and we had to head indoors. Fortunately the bad weather was shortlived and we headed back out for some sausage outside. Shortly after that we headed back home and relaxed after all the walking.

Eight Years Ago!!

2006-05-04T10:56:00.000+02:00

I was teaching a class that largely revolves around different types of national issues from homelessness to crime. The interesting thing about many of the Czechs is that they have lived for so long in a closed society. Though travel has of course opened up for them dramatically since the revolution, they are still sometimes restricted by money or motivation. In any case, I am often astounded by the perspectives they have. Today the issue was crime.
One of the more interesting things about living in the Czech Republic is the near absence of violent crime. In fact, except for a few pickpockets and the occasional mugging there is almost no crime at all. You can see this exemplified every day in the way they behave. The first time you see an 8 year old riding around the city's public transport alone be prepared for a little holier than thou shock. However, the one that really gets me is that mothers out for a days shopping will often leave their babies in their strollers outside the front door while inside. I'm not kidding. At first I thought this was insanity, but then remembered where I am. It's simply unthinkable for most Czechs that someone would do something horrible to their baby.
The point is that when I brought this topic up in class, the students' first reaction was to say that crime was out of control. We talked about that for a while, until I got them to admit that it was worse than it used to be, but that in comparison, was quite low. As part of my arguement I brought up the story about the babies. One of my students was quite surprised. She said Czech mothers are very responsible (which I have found to be very true), and that she thought they were being more careful. I asked why, and she said "well, we had a kidnapping eight years ago, and everyone was very concerned." I rest my case.

Many Cultured Weekend

2006-05-04T09:23:00.000+02:00

Thurdsday night I had a bender. My friend Ian showed up at pub night and mentioned that it had been a while since he had a 5am night. This seemed like a challenge, so after pub night we went off with Scott and played darts and pool, and drank until well after 5am.
On friday, Megan decided to cook me dinner, having partaken in my culinary skills now for several months. Our plan was to have another outdoor weekend, but the forecast was against us. In any case Megan prepared a chopsky salad, paprika chicken, and dumplings. It was of course delicious, and there were plenty of leftovers. After dinner, we headed over to Matt's place for a little house party. We were the first there, though we arrived over half an hour late, and the party was a little slow to get moving. Eventually Chris and Scott arrived, and everyone started drinking and having fun. I went out on the balcony with Scott for a while, whicle Megan discussed poetry with Chris and Matt. Later in the night four Spanich girls that Matt's roommate invited came in, drank 2 bottles of rum, and began dancing and singing. It was an interesting introduction into their culture, as they showed us a traditional dance of Southern Spain, and sang what I gathered were traditional songs. One of them was even so nice as to give me her address and phone number in Spain should I ever visit. However, I was still pretty beat from my bender on Friday, and the girls didn't speak much English (Scott and Matt's roommate speak spanish), so I headed home with Megan around 1am.
Saturday night we met up with Scott for what is arguably the best svickova in town. We ate dinner and chatted over pivo for a couple of hours. After that we went off to see a band that includes Scott's celebrity student Mira. This man is some kind of local Czech rock star, and simply oozes charm and goodwill. Apprently his wife is also pretty famous. At least famous enought o be recognized. In any case the band was an interesting mix, and played a wide variety of songs though the most fun for me were The Girl from Ipanema and Lili Marlen. These were two of their softer tunes, but there was plenty of good rocking and a little pop as well. As Scott said you never what's coming up next. Megan and i left Scott with Mira around midnight or so (might have been earlier).
Sunday the weather was cold and rainy, so we just stayed in, but on Monday the weather cleared up for Mayday. The first of may is something akin to our Valientine's Day. Traditionally you are supposed to take your girld to the top of Petrin hill and kiss her under a flowering tree (there is some dispute as to specific types of tree). I couldn't miss the opportunity so Megan and I headed out to Ptrin Hill. Curtis wanted to meet us and spend the day, since we hadn't seen each other in months, so we met at the bottom of the hill and began the climb. There is a small moastary called Strahov at the back of the hill. This was our destination. Megan and I went in to take a peak at the interior of the library, though very little is accessible as the monastery is still in use. We found a lovely little flowering tree for our customary smooch, and then met back up with Curtis for the walk down. Back in mala Strana we ate lunch at a spectacular Mexican Restaurant, and decided we were not ready to call it a day. We walked over to a spectacular baroque garden called the Wallenstein garden. After that we took a tram up to the Royal Gardens, and strolled on through those into Letna Park. We walked past the anti-communist rally held at the base of what was once a giant Stalin statue, and on over to the beer garden that overlooks Prague from the north. We had a drink and the sperated with Curtis. Megan and I walked back to her place, where I gathered up my stuff and headed home. I had not brought my camera, so pictures will have to wait on Curtis and Megan.

Zoo

2006-04-25T09:09:00.000+02:00

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love animals. They bring out the little kid in me, and often make me a little giddy. This of course translates perfectly to a love of zoos. Zoos are the perfect blend of child and adult themepark. A proper zoo has rides, balloons, bright shiny colors, and if possible touchable animals. Combine all that with the educational plaques, beautiful views, and hopefully decent food, and you get a wonderland of entertainment. I could wander a zoo for days, and come back a week later and be amazed. Needless to say I have been anticipating a zoo trip since my arrival in Prague. The worst part is that the zoo is walking distance from my house. The day finally arrived on Saturday. The weather was beautiful. Sunny with just a few clouds in the sky, warm enough not to wear a jacket, but not so much as to be uncomfortable. Megan and I started the trek from my house, which gives us two options. We can follow the road around, which is the easier route I would say, or we can cut over Troja hill and go through the large botanical gardens. We, of course, chose the latter. The large park is beautiful, and just beginning to flower and bud. Lots of people were of course out on this fine spring day, and we made a few discoveries, including some spectacular childrens playgrounds (that it took great personal restraint to stay out of) and some community firepits (which I hope to take advantage of). The long walk ended in our arrival at the zoo. The Prague zoo is magnificent, though not all the exhibits were ready for the season, yet, so I will have to go back. Megan and I managed to show up at every exhibit just before the crowd arrived, so we were lucky not to get trampled too much. About midday we stopped at a little grill and got some klobasa, then headed down to the chairlift that runs between the top part of the zoo and the bottom part. Finally we headed into the childrens zoo to pet the sheep, goats,and Llammas with the other kids (though Megan clearly has more difficulty finding her inner child than I do). We ended the day with the walk home, which was uphill, and so more difficult after a day of walking, and dinner at the italian restaurant in my building. Pictures

Easter Weekend

2006-04-18T08:55:00.000+02:00

Easter weekend was mostly quiet. I had very few plans. I went to Pub night as usual on Thursday with dancing after. On Friday my friend and colleague Anne had planned a little dart night at Harleq'in. Megan, Aidrian, Rob, Marta, Matt, and I all showed up to toss a few darts. most people slowly dissappeared, but as the night grew long, Anne talked Megan, Aid and I into going to the Piano Bar, though i'll admit I needed little convincing. Aid and Megan were the toughest. Aid had plans to go out of town with Rob and Marta the next day, but in the end he joined us. We wandered over to the Piano bar making a couple of stops on the way. At one bar we were refused draft beer becasue they were "out". This was my first lesson in attempts by bar owner to increase their margins using the late night crowd. In the end, we made it to Piano bar. Unfortunately there was no Piano playing for the night, but we did get a very fun drag variety show. Lip synching, dresses, wigs, et al. Around 4am Megan and I decided to leave, though Aid and Anne stuck around. I got directions from Aid to make sure I got home ok, and verified those directions with Anne. That's really when th night started to fall apart. Megan was exhaisted to the point of being nearly incapacitated. We followed the directions given, but after a fw minutes of walking realized we were going in the wrong direction. We found the nearest tram stop, and decided to wait for the next tram in our direction, as it was not long due. It came promptly, and took us over to IP Pavlova, where we could catch the last night bus back to my neighborhood, at 4:45. We hopped on , and to keep Megan distracted from her exhaustion, I went through her Czech flash carsd with her. Apparently the driver decided not to finish his route, something I still don't understand. We realized this after about 20 minutes on the bus and we were passing Muzeum. Shortly thereafter we arrived back at IP Pavlova. Now about 5:15 we went down to take the Metro which starts at 5am. Eventually it rolled into the station and took us to Kobylisy, while Megan tried to catch a nap. At Kobylisy we had to wait for the first morning bus to take us home, which didn't pull up until almost 5:45. We finally managed to get home around 6am or thereabouts. Sometime during all of this, I had promised Megan that she would have a completely lazy sleep day on Saturday, so that's what she got.

The search for Einbahn

2006-04-13T11:31:00.000+02:00

Megan and I went to Vienna on Saturday. I was well overdue for a trip out of the country, both morally and legally, but I wanted to do something different than the standard trip to Dresden which is by far the shortest and easiest trip to make. In any case we bought the tickets Friday afternoon and had an early night as the train would be leaving at 6am. We were runninga little late on the way in in the morning, but so was the train so we got on our way a little before 7am. The train ride was mostly uneventful as we were both very tired and slept for the bulk of the trip. Unfortunately the listed time it takes to get to Vienna is incorrect so we got a little concerned as we passed our arrival time while still in the Czech Republic. There was also a brief fright when the Czech border guard stared a little long at my passport, probably wondering why this was my first trip out of the country (Americans are only allowed to stay for 90 days at a stretch). In the long run we finally made it to Vienna at about noon. The map I had downloaded of the internet only included historic Vienna, so we had to find our way from the South Train Station to what is called "the Ring". The Ring is basically a semicircle around Vienna where most of the historic buildings are. The plan was to stroll around this boulevard, ad then cross the center to see St. Stephens Cathedral, then head up to the Danube and maybe get a glimpse of the giant Ferris Wheel. The problem of course is finding the Ring from the Train Station. On the bright side, I picked the right path and it led us into town. Once more or less near the ring it can actually be a little hard to figure out which street it is, until you know. There were lots of signs that said where to go and what to see, so with a little triangulation we managed to find our way onto the ring. This might have gone quicker excpet there was one sign that kept confusing me. it pointed in several different directions and seemed often to conflict with the other signs that were slowly but surely leading us to the Ring. I finally decided to ignore it and find the site on the map later after we were on the ring. Later in the day I compained to Megan that I kept seeing this sign everywhere and wondered what it was. It must clearly be an important site, because there were signs all over the city. She looked at the sign which read "Einbahn". She looked at me and said, "that means 'one way' dear." I laughed. Good for me, at least I didn't try to follow them.
We had lunch at a South American restaurant that was very good, and ten wandered the city for most of the day. We managed to circle the ring and see many of the historic buildings, and also have some time wandering the cobblestone streets in the center around the Cathedral. We took a tour of the catacombs, but though it was very interesting, they were by and large disappointing. By the time we got to the Danube we were pretty beat, and decided that the distance view of the giant Ferris Wheel woudl have to do, as we still had a long walk back to the train station. On the way we stopped at a cafe to have a drink and then, xince we arrived quite early at the station, I sat down for a cup of coffee. Eventually we boarded our train which left at around 6:30, and started the long journey back to Prague. We ate dinner on the train, a first for both of us, and then napped and talked in our compartment until we finally got home around midnight.
All in all Vienna was a spectacular city. The architecture is grand, and elegant, and everything is gilded. The parks were already green, and the trees were budding, and we were blessed with a warm and sunny day. However, it was good to get home to Prague. Pictures.

The Triumvirate of Health and Happiness

2006-04-04T11:07:00.000+02:00

One of the interesting things about teaching is that you never know what your students are going to say. Most of them have been taught by at least one other teacher, usually several. Their conversations of course are limited to whatever English they can recall (which admittedly is far better than my Czech to give credit). Strangely their responses can sometimes give insight into their culture. I was teaching a class today on family life and we were brainstorming on what you need to grow up healthy and happy. We made a pretty good list, and I was impressed with their insights. However, what stuck out were three of the seemingly more important items, which if you know the Czechs is not altogether surprising. They were: Peace, Love, and Good Weather.

Spring has finally come!!

2006-04-03T11:04:00.000+02:00

Saturday the weather had finally turned nice, and Megan and I decided to go to Petrin Hill, which is something I hadn’t seen yet, as it’s mostly and outdoors kind of attraction. We took the metro over the river, and walked in the sunshine over to the funicular which takes you to the top of the hill. In fact we didn't know exactly where this was, so we had a fun time walking through Mala Stranska trying to find it. Along the way we happened accidentally into a little park with a duck pond and some pretty architecture. There was also a very pretty sundial, which does not keep up ith daylight savings time, by the way. Once we made it to the top of the hill, we wandered around in the nature for a while, and then headed over to the main attraction. Petrin hill is topped by a scale model of the Eiffel Tower. According to the literature, if you include the hill on which it stands, the top is about the same height as the original. Built in 1891, it was restored in 2001, to make it safe and pretty again. We walked up the 400 stairs or so to the top, which is an adventure. The stairs wind around the outside of the tower. The steel grid is of course between you and certain death, but its still open air, and when you get up close to the top the dangers of vertigo are very real. The steps are narrow and steep, so you have to be careful. I took lots of pictures from the top, including one that is just looking down. As I write this I have not viewed them, so hopefully they turned out well. After the tower we went into the basement where there is a strange museum of artifacts from what appears to be a wholly fictitious historical person, “Jara Cimrman, genius who has not become famous”. The museum is very comical however, and I recommend it if you are ever in Prague. Finally, we went to an exhibit that has a mirror maze and some fun mirrors, as well as a seemingly out of place but very interesting exhibit about the Swiss invasion. All of this was built in 1891 as well, and was impressive considering the time. We were pretty tired at this point and wandered leisurely down the hill to lunch at Bohemian Bagel, then headed back to Krakov to rest. That night we went to dinner and were joined by Scott. We had a few beers and discussed the history of the Czech Republic at length before going to bed.

Another Birthday

2006-03-31T10:59:00.000+02:00

On Thursday, with a lot of help from Megan, David and Andy I planned a surprise 50^th birthday for Jiri (George). David and Andy bought a cake in the shape of breasts, which was probably the highlight of the party, but Megan and I decorated our usual pub with balloons and tablecloths (these were obviously for little kids with little giraffes and such on them). We even had noise makers, though I was the only one who seemed inclined to use them. George always comes early, so unfortunately there were not a lot of people to greet him, but we had a card that I made everyone sign as they came in. George was overwhelmed, I think, with the spontaneous display of friendship, and seems to have had an especially good time. I was in top form, because I felt really good about being the catalyst for the whole thing. I drank a little too much however and paid for it the next day. The problem was I never ate dinner, and on top of my usual Thursday drinking, Matt brought out a bottle of amaretto which he and I shared, and George kept buying shots of Becherovka to say thanks for caring. But except for the wrestling match I had with Matt out in the street, I seem to have avoided making a complete fool of myself, and the evening was a complete success. David has all the pictures, so hopefully he will send them to me, and I can post them.

Dancing, birthdays, and pizza

2006-03-29T12:20:00.000+02:00

So thursday night was pretty standard, except that Megan's mom was there for a couple of hours, so everyone especially me was on their best behaviour. Later of course we headed off to Nebe for dancing (I had challenged Mali to a dance off). There was a little misunderstanding with a young woman and Scott. Unfortunately it's not really my story to post. The thing is though that generally with Czech girls you usually know where you stand. They rarely play games.
Friday night I was in vited to Ian's birthday party in Andel. He had a private room in a cavernous little bar so at first I had trouble finding them. Eventually I sat down and was reminded of what a small world Prague is, especially among TEFL teachers and expats, as I knew a couple of people there from teaching. The party was fun and everybody got pretty trashed. Megan came along after she sent her mom and sister to bed early becasue they had an early flight home. She was a little sad and withdrawn for the night, but that's understandable. After the party most of us headed over to another local bar/club, which was a little dead, but made for a good place for a large group. We found a private little room and sat down to chat and drink further. Scott had a friend in town so he pretty much stayed out front to catch up. Eventually Ian pushed himself a little to far, and the night began to wind down. I said my goodnights and headed home.
Saturday I had to go to meet a client so I was up relatively early, and knowing there was no food in the house I stopped at the potraviny on the way back to pick up some lunch. Megan and I sat around my place most of the afternoon, really just being lazy. That night however, we wandered downstairs to a new restaurant in my building. It's mostly a little Italian Pizzeria, but I think they were a little shocked to meet English speakers in the place. My neighborhood has very few English speakers. In any case the food was pretty darn good, and the beer was reasonably priced, so Megan and I sat and talked for several hours about teaching and such, finally closing our discussion on the topic of religion of all things, and headded back upstairs.
Sunday was a blowoff day. We watched some downloaded TV shows, and movies, and then after Megan went home I just did laundry. The attached picture is me (of course), Megan, and Katka.

Another quiet weekend

2006-03-20T12:03:00.000+01:00

Thursday was the normal routine of Pub night and dancing. I went home earlier than usual at about 3am. I slept in a little on Friday as my morning class had cancelled, and managed to take a little nap in the afternoon. That night I met Megan, Matt, and his room mate out for dinner and a couple of drinks to celebrate St. Patty's day, but I was pretty tired so called it a night shortly after dinner. Megan's mother and sister were coming in to town on Saturday, so she and I had lunch at this quaint little Czech place a few blocks from Jan Hus' church. I had what is so far the best goulash. We spent some time hanging about and then I left her to go fetch her family. It had been a while since I had a Saturday night to myself, so I squandered it shamelessly, and accomplished nothing. I turned down invites to a club from Scott, and drinks with Megan after she put her mom to bed.
Sunday I met Scott for a late lunch, so we could chat about some of the events from Thursday night, and life in general (which mostly means women). We met at the Bohemian bagel in Old Town. I had a few cups of their bottomless coffee and some rare American style breakfast food, while we chatted. After Scott invited me to go to the museum of military history in Zizkov, as he was meeting Ian and Jason. I decided to tag along. The museum is up on a hill that is topped by the statue of Jan Zizka, where there is a really spectacular view of Prague. I have taken some pictures of the view, the statue and the museum, but I only had my camera phone with me, so I apologize for the mediocre quality.
Scott is even more fascinated with history than I am and his slow trek through the museum finally drove Ian and Jason to hit the road. I waited in part because I wanted to chat some more with Scott, but also because I wasn't exactly sure how to get home, as I had been talking to Ian all the way here instead of paying attention to our route. In the end Scott and I walked back into town and went to a favorite cafe of his where we had soup (exceptional in a city of exceptional soups) and then drank until about 1am. We managed to run the gamut of topics this evening from women (always at the top of the list) to racial inequity in the US. Needless to say it was a fun evening. I grabbed the night bus home (first time on a Sunday), and stumbled into my apartment around 1:30am.

I hate being sick

2006-03-13T09:57:00.000+01:00

Ok so I was sick most of the weekend and spent almost the whole time in bed or at least near it. I did go to Pub night on Thursday and since my Friday morning class had cancelled, I went to Nebe for a little dancing afterward with Scott, Matt, MJ, Mali, Caroline, Chris, etc. I danced myself a little silly. Chris, Matt, Scott and I went for some food a little later, and I managed to get home about 5ish. I was a little hungover for my Friday mid day class, but they are a very cool advanced class, and I often think they are hungover themselves. Friday I made dinner for Megan (Klobasa and mashed potatoes), and we watched some movies etc, as I was starting not to feel well. The rest of the weekend was just me whining about being sick, so I won't bore you with the details. However, I would like to point out that we got about 4 inches of snow.

Poker is clearly not my game

2006-03-06T10:05:00.000+01:00

So Rob had another poker night on Friday. He has a new place in the center so it was easier to get to this time around instead of having to go to the middle of nowhere. Of course I live in the middle of Nowhere so I can't really bitch. Anyway, I played a couple of hads really badly and wound up blowing through 200kc. Oh well, I had a good time, and that's not too much to pay for a good time. Scott arrived at the game after it was all wrapping up, and sat for a few minutes chatting. After that, we took Adrian and went to meet Mali in Zizkov. As we were walking over there, I actually got my first close up view of Zizkov tower. It was apparently originally designed to block out "western" tv and radio signals, but was not completed until '92 I think. So obviously that didn't work out. However, it is a very interesting tower, and has strange creepy baby sculpures climbing all over it. I will try ot get a close up picture and post it.
Anyway we met Mali and headed over to some dive herna bar to drink and chat to the wee hours of morning. I can't exactly remember what time I got home but it was after 6 I think.

Rugby, Music and Potato Pancakes

2006-02-27T10:30:00.000+01:00

Saturday night I met the gang at the Sport Bar for a little Rugby. It was the Scotland vs England, which meant that Adrian would be basing his mood for the night on the outcome of his beloved England team, but Rob would be rooting for Scotland. As my interest in Rugby has grown over the last weeks, I found myself also rooting for Scotland. Scotland played a really solid game and beat England by the skin of their teeth, but it made for an interesting game. Afterwards, I went with Rob and his girlfriend Marta, Chris, Elizabeth, Lucy and Megan to see a band named BT n J. Their flyer describes the sound as "Hiphop funky latino quartet". I think that's not really it. The music was pretty funky jazz, but not particularly latino. The vocals were pretty much just hip-hop. With the flute in the backgroud there were some pretty strange layers working together, and it made for a pretty interesting sound. Eventually Lucy went to pick up a friend who was coming for a visit, and we hung out at the bar for several hours chatting and just having a good time.
On a side note, I have learned my Czech numbers, and was actually able to communicate full with the bartender for the first time about how many beers I wanted, how much I owed and how much change to give back. I was very impressed with myself.
On Sunday night I had Curtis and Scott over to my place for dinner. I made stuffed potato pancakes, Curtis brought some wine, and Scott brought some homemade red cabbage. We chatted about life, women, men, travel, Prague, etc. All the things you would expect us to talk about.

Feels like Spring

2006-02-20T10:12:00.000+01:00

This weekend there was a bried respite in the winter cold. The sun appeared and melted all the snow and ice, and warmed everything to just above freezing. On Saturday I took a nice little stroll through my neighborhood which I hadn't done yet. Sunday I met a group of people for Brunch including Scott, Curtis, Beth, Megan, etc(for a complete list please see Curtis's posting of the same event). We had a nice time. There were I think 10 or so of us, and we ate and watched the Olympic games. Afterward the crowd began to shrink in groups of 1 and 2 until only Curtis, Megan, Kelly, and I were left, and we wandered through this lovely park in Holesovice, which I can not wait to see in the real spring, and across the river up to the 17th Century Chateaux in Troja. We wandered through the gardens and took lots of pictures which I will post. Eventually we wandered over to the zoo to catch a bus, which was easily the worst bus ride I have been on here in Prague. Unfortunately the warm weather is not going to last, but it was a much needed reminder that Spring will come.

Birthday

2006-02-02T15:24:00.000+01:00

For those of you who sent birthday wishes, I'd like to say a collective thank you. My birthday went very well. Originally I had not planned on having a celbration as such. Generally I just wanted to go somewhere with a couple of friends and throw some darts. People kept asking about my birthday so at the last minute I decided to pretty much just announce where I was going to play darts and see who turned up. The place was recommended to me by my friend and supervisor Ann (who also had me over for Christmas dinner). I was a little nervous about the place because it was located in a Herna bar, but it turned out to be quite nice. There were at least a dozen pool tables and 3 electrronic dart boards which suited me just fine. Approximately 15 people showed up, which was pretty great. For those of you who know me, you'll surely be impressed that I could amass a friendship group of that size in just four months. In the five months I lived in New York I managed to amass exactly 1 brand new friend. The wonders of expatriate life. In any case it was loads of fun. I played darts most of the night, and so was a little less social to those who didn't, but fortunately there were enough people in attendance to keep everyone entertained. Also I won 6 out of 8 games, so I was pretty pleased (My teammate for most of those games was Matt, who had never played before, and so was pretty pleased as well). Anne and her friend John, the only other experienced players also put in good showings, though Megan who had also never played before demonstrated pretty great skills that I hope to exploit from now on. It's always good to have a good opponent. Anyway I drank lots of Czech beer, recieved to bottles of Becherovka and lots of books as gifts, so all in all a better birthday than I had anticipated. Megan was kind enough to take photographs while I played darts, so here they are...Pictures

OH MY GOD IT'S COLD

2006-01-25T18:28:00.000+01:00

I haven't updated for a while, but generally that's because life has been pretty quiet. There's just not as much to do when it's -17 degrees outside. Mostly I just go to work (which I fortunately enjoy), watch videos with Megan, and go drinking with the gang. A couple of weeks ago Rob had a poker night at his house, and despite my misgivings about gambling (does not go well with compulsive nature) I went, because it turns out you had best take every social opportunity you have when living overseas. Anyway I was the first one out. I simply played badly. I bought back in however, and came out 25 crowns ahead for the night. So if anyone needs a donation to the "visit Mark in Prague fund" , I am willing to donate my total winnings. That's approximately $1. I decided at the last minute to have an actual birthday celebration, so perhaps after the weekend I will have some new stories or at least a few photos.

Good Deeds

2006-01-07T18:31:00.000+01:00

My friend Joan in New York along with my other good friend Andrea created a blog about people doing good deeds for one another. One of the best things about this blog is that it is mostly about New Yorkers doing for each other, which is a story not told enough. I've been keeping an eye on the site and am pretty happy to post a referral. Well done guys, love the site, and its always good to hear that people are still paying attention to the good news. I have added a link to the site on my links list to the left.

Texan dies in bizarre bus accident

2006-01-06T14:07:00.000+01:00

I realized I had not told the story about the bus that attacked me. A few weeks back while trying to take Megan out to dinner, we were traveling from one restaurant that was full to another. When we came to the bus stop there was already a bus waiting. A little old woman was standing in the door waiting for her friend to arrive so they could get on. I hesitated for a moment because I didn't want to step in front of her. I realized she wasn't getting on, so I stepped into the doorway. Just as I was taking that step I heard the buzzer that supposed to warn people that the door will be shutting soon. I was already in midstride, so I kept moving. Just as my foot landed on the first step, the door closed. The buses have scissored double doors, so the effect was to catch me right down the middle. Unfortunately the doors are not set to open if they encounter resistance. So I just was trapped there until the bus driver decided to open the door again. He finally did, but only left it open long enough to get al of me, but my other foot through the door, closing it again on my left ankle. I suddenly had visions of myself traveling sown the road with my foot hanging out, but fortunately the driver must have realized that he couldn't do that to someone, and opened the door. This time he left it open long enough for me to get all the way in the bus, and for Megan and the old lady to follow. However he shut the door in the face of the old lady's friend. Somehow it seems I got the blame for this. I could tell by the glare from the little old lady.

New Year's

2006-01-06T13:48:00.000+01:00

So the plan for New Year's came together at the last minute as you might expect. Curtis invited me to a friends to have dinner and then head out onot the town form there. I bought a couple of bottles of wine and hit the public transport into town. Dinner was delicious (eggplant Parmesan) and the company was friendly as always. Curtis has a friend in visiting form New York, and he was an interesting new addition to the group. After dinner and drinking we headed off to see some fireworks. I forget what the original plan was. Somehow I got elected navigator, which was just silly, but we lost some of our party on a tram. Basically they are visiting, and we hopped a tram, but they missed it. The tram didn't go far, but I think they were a little lost, and decided not to follow. Anyway we waited for them for a few minutes, and then realized we were going to miss the countdown if we didn't hurry. As we were passing through Namesti Miru, I stopped the party, and talked them into staying put. Namesti Miru is overshadowed by a giant beautiful cathedral, has a large digital clock on one of the buildings, and had just enough people there to create a party atmosphere. I thought it better to stay there than end up missing the countdown on route to a place I wasn't sure how to get to. Anyway we stayed, and the fireworks from here were brilliant. We drank Champaign and I kissed everyone. Later we had a snowball fight.
We decided to have a conference about what to do next. The group was sort of divided. Curtis, Mickey (New York friend), and I wanted to go to this gay bar nearby and do some dancing, but the girls wanted to go elsewhere, I forget where exactly. While we were having this conference some Czechs tossed a firecracker at the group. Everyone scattered except me. I waited for it to go off, and kinda just looked at the group that had thrown it and yelled Happy New Year. I guess they were impressed because one of the guys walked over and handed me a handful of firecrackers. So I had fun throwing those at people. Anyway, we headed off finally, but got distracted on the way by a noisy little sidestreet bar that didn't have a cover, so we went in there for a while. Finally, the boys and I headed out, because we really wanted to dance. I got an opportunity to do some sidewalk ice skating, but apparently neither my shoes nor my stride are properly adjusted to the ice, because I kept busting my ass ALL NIGHT. I fell down 5 times.
We finally managed to get to the club, and did in fact get to do some dancing. Eventually we headed out and went to get a late night snack at this all night fast food Mexican joint I know. But eventually I had to hop the bus and head home. Unfortunately the next morning I felt like some one had beaten me with a rubber hose, and some of the bruises are still there, but it was worth it.

P.S. I gave the address to this blog to some of my new Czech friends (Hello Kate, Jiri, Blanka, and Gabby), so if you see strange new comments in Czech I will do my best to translate those.

Global Update

2005-12-30T21:04:00.000+01:00

Ok, my internet connection has not been working for several days. On the bright side, nothing of any real import has happened to me. I had a lovely Christmas, thanks for asking. One of the senior teachers at my school invited me over for lasagna, which was delicious (thanks Anne). We spent most of the night playing an interesting Czech dice game and drinking wine. I was sick most of the last week, so I have done little more than teach, sleep, and whine, but am feeling much better now. I went out to the pub last night with Jiri and Gabriella, which was fun as always. Thursdays are fast becoming my favorite night of the week. I have no plans yet for New Years, but Curtis and I are trying to throw something together. The problem is that we are both broke, so we have to party on a budget. So, Merry Christmas to all, and have a Happy New Year, you are all in my heart this holiday. Na zdravi!!!!

Snow Etc.

2005-12-30T20:58:00.000+01:00

I love the snow. I love to throw my blinds open first thing in the morning and watch it flutter to the ground. I love to sit eating my Musli and look out across the everygreen covered hills of Troja to the red tile rooves of Prague and see the white white snow creating a sort of city wide christmasy feel. I love the fact that there is a sled hill right in front of my apartment. I love the way it crunches under my feet when I walk, and I love to romp in it. There are few things in this world that you can romp in, and snow is one of them. That being said, here are a few things I hate doing in the snow...1) Going to the grocery store 2) Waiting for the bus 3) Walking uphill or downhill when it's all icy 4) Smoking. I'm sure there's more, I'll discover them through the course of the winter and keep everyone updated.

A moderate weekend

2005-12-11T19:57:00.000+01:00

I decided to do eveything in my power to have a relatively quiet weekend after last weekend. I have a new class on Friday mornings so I knew I needed to head home at a decent hour on Thursday night, plus I wanted to get some stuff done around the flat. So I went to the pub as usual on Thursday, and had a great time. There was some mistletoe, and that caused a minor episode when I stoood under it and the only one who would come give me a kiss was Jiri, whose picture I am attaching sitting with me and Megan. Fortunately no one was quick enough with their cameras to get that on film. I managed to call it a night about 1am when the bartender came to the table and sat down to reckon up and send me on my way. I walked Megan home and then managed to get myslef home at a somewhat decent hour.

Next day I was late for class due to getting lost, but managed it ok. I was a litle tired, but I got through it. That night I invited Megan out to my part of town for dinner and drinks. The restaurant I had chosen was actually completely full when we arrived so we ended up at a very nice little italian/pizza place not too far away. After that we went to an "Irish" bar near my flat. There's really nothing Irish about this particualr bar except that they serve Murphy's. In any case we stayed there chatting until roughly 1am.

Saturday night Curtis was throwing a Christmas party with some friends. I went along and brought a case of beer, that almost got me mugged on the metro, not to mention that I had to put a 1ookc deposit on the crate in which I had to carry it. Most of the party were strangers to me, but it was still alot of fun and I got to meet a few new people. After the party broke up we went off to a dance club called Nebe, where I had a few more drinks and got to do a little dancing. As with any night there's a breakpoint in the evening where it's actually easier to just stay out until 5am and take the metro than to try and catch the night bus/tram. Once we realized we were past that time we just hung out at Nebe until after 5 and then went to get some Gyros. We parted ways with Scott sometime after 5:30 or so and headed to the flat. This was the one late night of the weekend.

Today I have done some laundry, cleaned house, changed a few light bulbs, and updated my blog.

Bender

2005-12-05T19:29:00.000+01:00

I went on quite the bender this weekend. Thursday I went to the pub as usual and met a new friend named Jim who currently lives in Dubai, but was in town vising for the weekend. I introduced him to the rest of the pub, and we spent some time together during the weekend. Toward the end of the evening at Konvikt my drinking for the night was paid for by my former tutor Mali in recompense for some work I did at the school. i then teamed up with some of the guys from the new block of students, my belarussian friend Oleg, and Scott who seems like he will feature prominantly in many of my late night adventures. We first tried O'Che's the Cuban I rish bar near the Konvikt. I got a chance to throw some darts with Oleg, but the bar was already ready to close when we got there. So off we went to the Budvar (a budweiser pivovar) around the corner. We sat there and drank and talked until the group began to dwindle, and when they closed at three we wandered off to the Hard Rock for some late night dancing and drinking. We danced until they shut down the DJ. Toward the end of the night when the party had dwindled to Me, Oleg, and Scott, we were joined by a native black czech. He was an interesting character who wanted to discuss politics in the US. Generally I found him interesting if a little confused. Also his reasons for having left he US were a little sketchy. I rolled into my flat at around 6am.

Friday I was invited by Scott to join him, Courtney and Lucy for a party. We went to the party which was entirely people I don't know, and it was a little overwhelming for all of us. Plus I accidentally pulled the coatrack off the wall. Anyway we went to get some food with plans to meet up with the party a little later. We had a nice meal and laughed a little about how overwhelming was the group of people at the party. We gave it a solid effort though, and joined them for the next stage at a little local bar. We simply didn't blend with this crowd and so decided to shoot some pool, where Scott and I got beat 3-2 by the girls. Deciding that 1kc per minute was a little pricey to play much more, we headed off to a metal bar that Courtney recommended. We did a few tequila shots and talked over the metal music for most of the rest of the night. I rolled in at 7am.

Saturday I was invited to Courtney and Aidan's for dinner and drinks. I was supposed to hang out with Jim, so I asked if he could some along. The answer was that as long as we brought more food, so we did. I met up with Jim and Scott on the way to the flat, where we could drop off our stuff before heading to the wine bar around the corner where the evening was to start. On the way there I got a text form my friend Megan who I had been chatting up on Thursday inviting me out for drinks. I invited her along with us, since I was already on my way. Finally we all got together at the wine bar the party now being Courtney, Lucy, Aidan, Scott, Jim, Megan and me. We drank a few pitchers of wine, and chatted about nothing in particular. After we went back to Aid and Courtney's for currey. Fortunately there was plenty of food. After we had eaten and drunk yet more wine we headed off to a local pub for a few drinks. I got into another game of pool, this time with Lucy, Megan, and Aidan. This time I took Lucy as a partner, and we managed to actually win. During this Scott, Courtney, and Jim went off to El Mohito with plans to meet us up at the Harley Bar later. After the game Aidan called it a night, but Lucy, Megan and I headed off to the Harley bar. When we arrived I sort of lost track, as I sat and talked to Megan at the bar while everyone else went off to a table. We closed the Harly bar which came to about 5am I think, but by then everyone else had already gone home. Rolled in at roughly 6am. Sunday I accomplished very little of anything, though I was supposed to go have dinner with Jim, but I didn't hear from him until he was in Amsterdam a few days later.

Thanksgiving

2005-11-26T19:20:00.000+01:00

Thanksgiving went very well. I had several guests, and although the Turkey came out a litle dry thanks to the previously mentioned problem of not knowing how long to cook it, it still tasted delicious. In addition my stuffing which was basically a modification based on local ingredients to Joan's recipe (thanks Joan) was absolutely brilliant. Some of the guests brought food, and we basically just ate, drank and were merry. Pictures

Phil Collins

2005-11-25T19:24:00.000+01:00

So I went to see Phil Collins last night. I arrived late, as my friend never showed up, and I ended up going alone. I was sat in the expensive seats which mostly meant I was surrounded by rich older people, who seemed determined not to have any fun. I on the other hand enjoyed the concert immensely. The pictures I took are mostly pretty bad as the lighting just wouldn't work for my camera, and I am not a sufficiently god photographer to fix that problem. I am posting most of them anyway, cause I went through all the trouble to take them. Pictures.

Buying a turkey in Prague

2005-11-25T15:54:00.000+01:00

I thought it would be a real challenge to find a turkey for thanksgiving. Turns out there was a whole bin of them at my local Albert gracery store. Once I sifted through the geese, and the French turkeys (which were just too damn slender for my taste), I found what looked like the perfect thanksgiving turkey. Problem was there was no label on it. Now my kitchen is limited in it's readiness, and I knew I didn't have a meat thermometer (almost impossible to buy by the way). Without a label, I couldn't get the weight. So I went to the meat counter and as politely as I could ask in a foreign language, asked her to please weigh it for me. She resused, and started waving her hands at me and such. I didn't leave so she went and got a manager who came out with some sort of scanner, and scanned another turkey and showed me the price. The gist of the problem was that they assumed I needed the weight so I could get a price, when in fact I needed the weight for cooking time. We argued about this for a few minutes, and I was getting really frustrated with her when it hit me that in this situation I'm the jackass. I'm living in their country and shopping at their store speaking my language. So I took my turkey and left.

The rest of the weekend

2005-11-23T11:36:00.000+01:00

I love the snow, but does it have to be so damned cold?

Saturday night I met Curts and Erica in front of the national theater. Erica had tickets back to Wisconson on Monday, so we were out to see a few things before she left. We went to have coffee at the Slavia Cafe which is famous for the fact that it was popular among free thinkers during Communism. After that we walked across the Charles Bridge which was beautiful as always. Right in the center a couple were playing violins, and we stopped for a few minutes to listen. The music was lovely, and with the cold air and quiet night it was a little haunting. Then at just the perfect moment in the song, a bird flew up from behind the pair. It was remarkable, but almost so perfec that it made us want to laugh, so we moved on. We walked around a bit and agreed to meet on Sunday morning for coffe, and to go to Kutna Hora to see the bone church.

Sunday monring bright and early we met at Kava Kava Kava. We went to the bus station to get tickets, but the next bus wasn't until almost 4pm. Unfortunately that wouldn't get us there until almost 5pm well after dark. So instead we took a train out of Hlavni Nadrazi that left almost two hours earlier. The train ride was serene, and gave me a chance to see some of the countryside surrounding Prague. When we finally arrived in Kutna Hora, we walked over to the bone church in the freezing wind and snowy rain. The church was really interesting, but only took us about 20 minutes to see and photgraph. Afterwards we wanted to find a very czech bar/restaurant and have some authentic czech food. We wandered around slightly lost for a while, and almost went into a men's club until I translated the sign. Finally we stopped and asked some czechs where the nearest retaurant was, and got some directions. Unfortunately when we showed up they didn't have any food yet (this was about 5pm). So we just drank for a while. This by the way was easily the best beer I have had since coming to Prague. It's a local in Kutna Hora, so if you get the chance, I would try it. There was a painting on the wall that bore a striking resemblance to Curtis, so we all took pictures. We drank, laughed and talked and had a good time. Anyway, Curtis got a little drunk and passed out at the table, before they finally brought menus. We of course couldn't read the menus, so in my very best bad czech I told the waitress to please just bring us whatever they recommended. The food finally came out, and it was really fantastic. If I can ever find the place again I'm taking all my visitors there. It was time to head back to our train, which was the last one to Prague for the night, but we were running late. We had to really book it back to the station. The train was crowded and we had to push open the bathroom door to get in, as the train started rolling as we were climbing up the steps.
We finally got home, and after hugs and goodbyes we went off home to bed. Erica left the next day, so good luck to her, and I hope she's well.

Photos!!

Snow

2005-11-19T13:30:00.000+01:00

IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Day Out with Curtis

2005-11-18T00:06:00.000+01:00

On Thursday Curtis and I met for lunch, which was a challenge, because as I mentioned I stayed out with Kurt until 6am. Anyhow, when I finally arrived we had a nice chat and talked about our Thanksgiving dinner next week. Somehow, probably because I'm so determined to have it, I got drafted as the official planner and host. So we talked about that, and then decided we didn't feel like calling it a day. We ran off to Visehrad to do some sightseeing, but it was already almost four, so we had little daylight left. We decied to come back on Friday and bring our cameras. Basicall Visehrad is the original castle before they moved it up to the hill. Its been rebuilt and renovated many times over the last 800 years or so, but a few of the original ruins can still be seen.

After that we went over to old town to see the Astronomical clock which has been under reconstruction since we arrived, and I needed to get a photo. We had a late lunch at Bohemian bagle and then headed off to do our own thing. I came home an dwatched some downloaded movies, and Curtis went to a movie with another friend. Not that exciting, but check out the photos...

Midweek

2005-11-17T19:42:00.000+01:00

So I had my first date with Katerina last night. We met after her English class at a little cafe called Tulip. Its a neat little bar/restaurant owned by an American. The lighting is gentle and the jazz is smooth. We had food and luckily very good conversation. I was very impressed with her English one on one, as we've always met in a group in the past. After dinner and about 3 hours of chit chat, we went downstairs to the live music area where they were playing some funkier jazz, much louder and more lively. We listened to that for a while, and I had a few more drinks. Kate was fighting a cold and so she only drank tea. Because today is a Holiday, the czechs decided to meet up last night instead of the usual Thursday night. At about 10:45 Kate and I wandered over to the Konvikt to see what was up. I was trying desperately to convince her to take a later train home (she lives well outside the city), when she turned to me, smiled, pointed at my nose and in perfect English said, "I see right through you." I laughed my ass off. Anyway we picked up the Czechs and I took them to a party where I was meeting some friends from the current TEFL course who were celebrating their graduation. That's right folks the course after mine is just graduating. I've been here for two months!! Anyway we headed to the party, and I managed to get Kate to stay out for the next train, but only the one. Oh well, the night was wonderful.

I stayed at the party after Kate left. I drank until I was good and smiley, then a group of us went to Usudu to have a few more drinks. We stayed there a couple of hours and then wandered off to get Gyros. We had a debate about where the best Gyros place is in town, so we went to both. After that, I took Kurt home, as he was good and hammered. On the bright side, it was about 5:30 so we were able to take the metro instead of the night bus.

So all in all a very successful night!!

Quiet time and Cold

2005-11-15T19:13:00.000+01:00

So I pretty much wasted the entire weekend. After the Thursday pub night, which is easily my favorite night of the week, I sat in my apartment and accomplished nothing. In a way it was nice to not be busy, but also, it was a reminder of an old self. I sat in front of this computer and wiled away my time in another world altogether. I didn't even sleep that much. Yikes!!

On the bright side, I had a really fun night at Pub night as usual. I am quickly becoming popular among the Czechs for whatever reason. Either they really enjoy my company, or I am like some sort of trained monkey they enjoy watching. I'm thinking the former, but who knows for sure; it might be the latter. On the even brighter side I have a date. She's not engaged, she's not married, she doesn't have a boyfriend, she's not crazy, she's not an alcoholic, she's never been married, and she has no kids. I'm not really sure what to do.

It's gotten quite cold here. Like January weather in Houston. I'm simply not used to it. There's a big difference between being prepared for it and being prepared for it if you know what I mean.

Erica

2005-11-09T18:03:00.000+01:00

So my friend Erica decided to move to Poland. Turns out that in small towns in Poland they don't speak any English at all. So Erica discovers just a little late that she is a very social person, and finds herself talking to herself for three days. She goes a little bit crazy, quits her new job, and returns to Prague. Not that I knew this, she didn't write, didn't call, nothing. Not that I'm bitter, I just wanted everyone to know, how happy I am that there are lots of English speakers in Prague. So if you ever here me complaining about how hard it is to learn Czech because everyone speaks English please remind me. Thanks.