Benn and Petra get married

Okor

Beroun to Karlstejn

Olomouc

Divoka Sarka

Joan's Birthday 2008

Birthday 2008

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

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

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

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

River Race

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

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

Snezka

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Day at the Races

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.