Yesterday, after the adventures, I slept for another solid hour. My roommate Laura and I discovered that switching rooms was not option so we’ve been forced to adapt to the cramped lifestyle. It’s really not that bad but we don’t have anywhere to put our clothes besides a closet in the corner. Therefore, most of it stays in the big luggage. I’m glad I didn’t over-pack. Actually, I just gave my room a quality once-over and I’m starting to appreciate the cove for what is- mostly because there is one single decoration on the walls. It’s a tiny picture of the Charles Bridge on the wall above our beds.
Perhaps Jed can send me one of those street-side pictures of Bieber from New York. Postage is expensive, so I’ll probably get a caricature of my face instead (I’m mostly kidding). When we went to the Charles Bridge, there were several tourist booths with hand-made jewelry (Mom- They had leather, glass-fusion, beading, and copper. You’d be in jewelry-making heaven), paintings, caricatures(of course), and an awesome band was performing in the middle. They went the whole 9 yards. There was a trumpet, a metal-scraper thingy that sounded like one of those instruments that Mr. Rybchzinski made us play with in 5th grade, a big bass, a guitar, and there was a man singing into a funnel-looking thing.
They sounded a lot like the band from Star Wars in that scene where Luke and Obi-Wan meet up with Hans Solo in a bar(which is also the background for the video game version of Star Wars). Anyways, they sounded great, but there was tough competition right beside them. An opera singer accompanied by a blind piano player.I am back-tracking on my day now, let me continue onto other topics…
When I woke up from my slumber, I was disoriented since my watch said it was 12:30pm, but it was dark outside. The rain hadn’t slowed down, yet. Laura and I decided to unpack further at some point. I started to get really hungry so I prepared myself with more than just a zip-up this time. It’s about 60 degrees F and raining constantly. Actually, it reminds me a lot of Raleigh winters. Anyways, I walked into the lobby just as a couple girls were leaving for dinner so I joined them. We walked into one “Restaurant & Bar” to find that there was only a bar. We kept walking until we found a restaurant named after the beer that is brewed in Czech- Pilsner. How could we resist? It was a Mexican restaurant, although I’m a little confused as to why. I’m also confused as to how I managed to order fish & chips at a Mexican restaurant. Right after we ordered, about 7 more people from the program walked in. How ironic! We combined the tables and enjoyed our Mexican food and beers. So get this, beer is cheaper than
water in Prague. I’m not kidding. Laura went out and got a 2 Liter (what the!?) bottle of beer. You might be thinking to yourself, “wow, that must have been expensive.” No, it wasn’t. It was 30 krowns, which is the equivalent of $1.50. I might become spoiled here. Which reminds me. When Crystal and I went to visit Jed in NY the weekend before I left the country, Jed didn’t give us fair warning that the bars didn’t close until 4AM. Thus, around 2AM, Crys and I grudgingly returned back to the apartment to sleep, while Jed continued to rage throughout the night. I was thankful that sleep was more of a priority in Baltimore. But in Prague, the bars don’t close until 6AM! I am going to need some serious mental preparation for a night that lasts that long.
The next day, everyone woke up early for orientation. The pension serves us breakfast every morning between 8-10am. The problem I may run into is that I don’t start class until after lunch every day. I may or may not be able to take advantage of the complimentary service. Seeing as how bars are open until 6am, though, I am not willing to sacrifice sleep for an early start to my day. I’ll keep you updated on how this operation goes.
Anyways, I woke up early to shower and get breakfast before we left. I’ve been secretly dreading showering because the shower is located in the same hallway as the main entrance. So every guest could potentially see me squeaking down the hallway in a very fashionable towel (Dermer’s Bat Mitzvah Towel). I conquered my fears for the sake of sanitation and it went well.
We took the metro to the institute, which was in the old new city (I think?). The institute is a lot cooler than I originally suspected. It has balconies, and pretty rooms, and everything! The program I am in is very architecture-heavy aka there is 90% architect students in it. Every time we walk around, I hear more architecture lingo than I do Czech. I was joking with some people that I will know more about the buildings than the actual culture by the time I leave this country.
So, after the grand tour of the institute, as well as an orientation to the program, we took a break for lunch and enjoyed the Czech version of Panera. Literally, it was called Paneria. I had a delicious sesame bagel with mozzarella cheese, tomato, pesto, etc. I really don't know what else was on it, but it was delightful. We walked around a little bit before heading back and ended up running into a massive crowd staring at a clock. That's when we discovered that we were right beside the famous Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Hall Tower. I've heard that it's quite the sight to see at the top of every hour and guess what- it was only 2 minutes away from being the top of the hour! So, we meandered for a bit and then all of a sudden the mini-statues started to move like a coo-coo clock and a trumpeter performed a little march. It was sort of anti-climatic considering how much hype it was getting from the tourists.
When we got back to the Institute, we took a walking tour of the area around it. It was raining, but that didn't stop me from getting some legit pictures. The buildings are old as my Bubbie (just kidding) and the sights were stunning, but there was one attraction that really made my day. So Dana, our program director, was explaining the route to get to some place or another when the girl beside me pointed up past Dana's head. I looked up the length of this beautiful building to see this:
So, yeah that was the highlight of my day. I had my first grocery store extravaganza afterwards and it was really challenging. I was about to mistake butter for hummus spread until I looked down at the package I was holding and it said "Maslo." Well, thank goodness I'm the Mrs. Butter. We went back to the pension and met up with the guy that started the program 5 years ago. He gave us a little walking tour of the restaurants around our place and then we sat down at the friendliest restaurant we've been to yet. I got Gnocci with mushrooms and it was muy deliciosa (wait, I'm not in Spain?). I had a new type of beer called Lobkowicz and let me tell you... I had one beer and I felt drunk. I thought it was because I didn't eat much that day or due to the fact that I was exhausted, but at one point, someone else at the table admitted that they felt drunk and everyone sighed in relief that they weren't the only one (the alcohol content is a little heavier here). We finished our meal and the guy that took us out showed us a small pub that he loves to go to. It's called "Scheisse Katze" which can be translated into "The Shitting Cat." Don't let the name fool you, though. It was the best pub I've been in yet. There were vintage chairs and classic couches. None of the furniture matched. The light fixtures on the walls were iron and surrounded by a picture frame- obviously without the picture. There were authentic old pictures on the walls, like the wedding portraits of a couple from the 1910's. Art, the guy that took us there, recommended that we go in there for a beer at least once a week so that after a few weeks, the people will recognize us and treat us like we were locals. Therefore, we tried really hard to blend in when we got there. We talked in lower voices and avoided being those loud and obnoxious Americans. However, in Prague, it's custom to greet the people who work in restaurant businesses with "Dobry den," meaning good day. It's considered impolite if you don't. Unfortunately, we couldn't hide the fact that we were American by saying "dobry den" to the bartender with our thick American accents and none of us were confident enough with our Czech to attempt it. Instead, we all walked in with our hushed voices and heads down which the bartender took as us being rude. Yikes. Not a good start.
Wow. I wrote a lot. I admire you for making it all the way through this blog. For that, I will reward you with a picture of a garage door I found.
