Tabor

Museum Night 2008

Borivojova Pub Crawl

Snezka 2

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

Saint Petersburg

Rip

Telc

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.