In the nature. On the cottage.

English teacher joke.  Czech students (all language students) have difficulties with prepositions.  And they have a tradition of going in the nature on the cottage on their weekends.  You can also rent cottages, which some friends and I did for a surprise birthday party this weekend.  Well, my friend and one of his friends' several friends....  It was a different group to be around but everyone got along alright and had fun.  After the last two weekends I'm ready to have a lazy one in the city.

The weekend actually kind of started on Thursday, (they tend to do that here) with another music night.  Different theme, we all had to create an album of 14 tracks using songs that are track one, track two, etc. on their original album.  Hard but fun!

The cottage participants: Three Czechs, two Irish, an Aussie, a Brit, a Russian, and a Texan. 

Friday afternoon we took a train to the small village of I Don't Remember the Name, then got cabs to the cottage.  Which is basically a cabin in the woods close to a lot of other cabins.  We settled in and got decorations going and waited for the birthday boy and his girlfriend to show up.  Surprise party time!  Grilled food, played cards, had cake, told jokes I will not repeat here, etc.  

Saturday we....did absolutely nothing.  Not  true, we walked to the village and sat by the lake.  Warm day but still too cold to swim.

Sunday we got up early and hiked to some natural caverns in the area.   They were pretty cool, especially since you could take boats on part of the tour.  I wasn't terribly impressed after being to Carlsbad, and it was freezing down there so there were some sullen too-cool-for-this hipster jokes from some of us on the tour.  ("I was into caves before they were popular", etc.)  What was really cool was the Macocha Abyss, (check that part out in the link).  We stood at the top of it on a dock with a rail about five feet tall separating you from a crazy high drop.  And then we saw it from the bottom after going through the caves.  We got dinner nearby but it started pouring rain so we got cabs back to the cottage.

Monday we had to clear out, but not before another bizzare Czech holiday tradition took place.  So on Christmas they kill carp on the streets.  (You remember that right?  It was like the only thing that made me happy for about a month.)  Well on Easter the men gather young willow branches and weave them together into a whip and then decorate it with pretty ribbons and flowers and whatnot.  They then go around beating the women in their life to transfer the young viril health of the tree into the women to keep them healthy and fertile for the next year.  It's good for them.  Then the women give the men shots of alcohol or money.  The men can only do it before noon though.  After that the women can throw cold water on the men.  Of course, our boys thought it sounded like a great tradition and went off to make their stick.  We cleaned up the place (and locked the doors) while they did.  We forgot about the windows though and they got in before noon.  We were (quite gently) smacked and blessed with Spring health for another year.  A couple of the boys got smacked right back or pinned down and tickled and had their shoes taken off and thrown outside.  (Only three of us there were Czech after all. It's not our tradition.) 

We made it back to Prague before dinner time and to a short work-week.  Happy Easter everybody. 


(....I feel like there was a lot of parentheses abuse in this post.)

Spring is mos def here!

The Prague Spring was a terrible time in the history here, but Prague IN spring is wonderful.  It's so awesome to just be able to be outside with one or two layers when all winter it was practically unbearable to be out even all bundled up.  Flowers, blue sky, and the colors of all the buildings really pop in the sunshine.  <3



Budapest!

The participants:  An Aussie, a Canadian, a Slovak, a Czech, and a Texan.

The music: The Beatles, "Magical Mystery Tour". Adele, "21".  Arcade Fire, "Suburbs".  IAMX, "Kingdom of Welcome Addiction".  Oaisis, "What's the Story Morning Glory?".  Coldplay, "X&Y".  And a playlist mix simply titled "Get Psyched" made by the Canadian. 

The car:  Some trusty red hybrid Honda thing. 

The destination: Budapest.  Debauchery. 

A formula for awesome!  And yet things were far from awesome here and there....but we brought it back and made it awesome.  The hostel was super cheap...and pretty crappy.  The city was hard to get around, hard to find any good bars, and not as modern as Prague.  But there was lots of cool stuff to see and do.  Namely the baths.  Oh man, the baths were incredible.  Big pools, small pools, hot pools, cold pools, fountains, jets, whirlpool rides of joy.  The city has several but we went to the Szechenyi.  I would go back just for those.  We could have done more with the city, but it was mostly just good to get out of town and see some new scenery. I think when visiting somewhere else you either need to spend more than a couple of days or have a local/residing expat to take you to cool places.

Although it's hard to even remember at this point what my expectations of all this were, I do remember feeling like Prague wouldn't be as modern as it is.  Both Vienna and Budapest have more of an old-world feel with the older metros and trams, older cars, less English spoken, etc.  They've been great to see (and add to my places been list), but so far I much prefer Prague.  Part of that is just being familiar with the city and having friends here though. 

I do think getting away now and then is super important.  Today was just fantastic for lot of reasons, but taking off and coming back might have helped too.  Great weather, great lessons, and great company all day. 

Budapest.

....Maybe?  I had a chance to go about a month ago but was leery about money and getting stopped at the border(s) and being locked up and deported since I don't have my visa yet.  But this time I have the chance to go with my friend who has a car.  Cheaper and no mean train check people.  Better chances.  Budapest!  Which actually is pronounced Budapesht.  I just thought people were being pretentious. 

The weather wasn't quite as nice as last weekend, a little chilly and windy, but there was still beer gardening.  It was pretty nice and low-key actually.  Had sea-food for the first time since coming here.  One of my friends is making a short film about being an expat.  He's interviewing friends here who come from all over the world, just asking where they're from and why they came, what they like/don't like, if it was a good decision to come, etc.  I hate hearing my voice recorded and thought my interview was pretty boring, but I'm excited to see how it turns out!

I just finished reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.  Long, but a quick read, I really liked it.  Much nicer than The Unbearable Lightness of Being which I've been working on.  Blegh. 

Been in Prague for 5 months today!  I'm very much looking foward to the half a year mark.  And shortly after that will be my birthday.  And it will be awesome.



How does it feel.

It's a wonderful bar moment when four people from four different countries simultaneously start singing along to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" starting with that first "didn't you?!".  Especially when they didn't have to pay their bill because they won the pub quiz!  Just saying.  We're brilliant. 

The weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend.  Two days of sunshine and the highest temperatures I've felt since being here.  There was much wandering around town with a video camera, eating ice cream on park benches, drinking beer in the beer gardens, and general people watching and judging various crimes against fashion.  It's really like a different city when it's bright and warm.  Today is cooler and raining, I'm glad it held off all weekend. 

A lot of Czechs leave Prague on the weekends. They go to their smaller hometowns or on vacation or skiing or cycling now that it's getting warmer. I heard English everywhere in the beer gardens.  And saw people I knew/recognized in other groups separate from the ones I was in.  So hopefully it's more of a not-Czech-not-tourist-but-expat kind of thing.