Prague and some more Vienna

So on Friday I went and met Ryan, Maureen, Mel, and some other girl at the airport. It was a nice trip. Cost me money, but whatever. ND should pick that up, I guess. I had to wait for a while, but it was really nice to finally have some friends come in. We all went into my place for a few minutes to chill down and get something to drink from the Turkish Market across the street. I took them to their school, then headed off to my own, about two hours late for class. That night, we all (meaning myself and everyone else in the program with ND) met up with Brian and Joe downtown. The big group split up, and my group went off in search of food and a Stiegel. We ended up having to ask for directions to somewhere to go from some restaurateur, but it was sweet because I was at the top of my German game. I didn’t even have to ask him to clarify in English! We ended up in a restaurant/pub/Biergarten that had some decent food too. It was a great time. The waiter, Jan, was really cool too, though he has a storied past to say the least. We all decided to come back later, probably tomorrow night, and hang out with Jan on his day off, Wednesday. He wants to show us the city, namely some discotheque where someone will assault you physically for looking incorrectly at a female. Who knows.

After the bar, I ended up staying at Brian and Joe’s apartment because they didn’t have an alarm clock. We got up early to go to the Flohmarkt in search of Lederhosen and other cheap goods. No lederhosen were found, but we negotiated our ways into a nice flag for me and a genuine Black Forest wood-hewn mug for Brian. We barely made it onto the already-packed train (maybe, MAYBE by two minutes), where we had to squat in the area of the restaurant for the entirety of the five hour train ride. We got some sweet visa stamps too.

We arrived in Prague tired and totally confused. And this is where the sketchiness that was Prague really kicked in. As we stood in line to find some tourist info and a hostel, we heard this tiny, high pitched voice say “Excuse, do you need place for stay?” It was a tiny little old lady, who, after we told her it was three men looking for a room for a night, offered to let us stay in her place for ten euros each. I figured, hey, why not. I can check the place out and back out if I want to, and if we do stay there it would be a great story. So we took the little old lady who snagged us in the airport up on her offer. She directed us as to which public transit ticket to buy, and told us repeatedly in her awesome accent where the bus station is, where her house is, where the city center is, and where the lines crossed. She also told us some safety tips. For example: “In city very safe. Big lights, big areas, big streets. Safe. In small area, small light, small street, you safe, money not safe. Many Gypsy!” and “My house safe area! Very safe, only families. No Gypsy. No Gypsy,” while smiling knowingly the whole time. It was awkward, because there was what I am fairly confident were a few people with Gypsy blood sitting nearby. We were on the subway. Not to repeat myself, but man, how awkward is that?

We chilled out in the really nice room for a few minutes before getting up to see the city. It was a really hopping place, with tons of people out at all hours of the night. We were able to catch most of the sights during the day, like the huge castle with the even more impressive cathedral. We also were able to see both buildings where the Defenestration of Prague occurred. The huge tower was especially impressive. I hope to be able to get the shots up for that part of the trip soon, but facebook is being uncooperative.

Everything in Prague was really cheap. Food, drinks, souvenirs, EVERYTHING! I got a shirt that really screams “Jimmy Champlin,” a mini-stein, and some other stuff. We ate well, and also went to a bar, where absinthe and a local beer was tried in the company of “Cool Aunt” (don’t worry my Aunts, she didn’t have you guys beat) and her nephew and niece. They were interesting folk. Lots of stories there. We ended up in the basement of the bar in the “club,” which was pretty much empty. The bartender was cool though, so we ended up staying for a while and had a “Happy Beer,” which cost 25 kronor, or less than 1 euro. The entire weekend, in fact, was pulled off with only 50 euros each.

After the bar we had another adventure, which, for my parents’ sake I won’t post until I am safely home in the states. It was awesome.

After more sightseeing on Sunday, we missed one train because it didn’t exist (Eurail Guide: you have failed me for the last time) and had to switch stations. We figured out the smell we had been kind of noticing the whole time across the less populous areas of the city. It was urine. Anyways, we made it onto a train that was arriving at the station about 120 minutes late.

I had to buy a ticket on the train because I was about to run out of passes for the rails. It was fun trying to negotiate my way into paying in kronor, because that was all I had. No euros. But we got our own spaces on the train back to Vienna, and were able to catch some sleep. We had to take a one-hour layover in Breclev or something, which was I think an old Soviet nuclear town (guess courtesy of the gigantic cooling tower we saw on the way in). We got back to Vienna around 10 pm, where I promptly went home to shower and shave, which I had not done in well over two days. It was nice, but I was, and still am, kind of exhausted.

Today (Monday) I got up and grabbed some breakfast with Maureen and Ryan, where weekend stories were exchanged. Apparently they met up with Jan by coincidence, and the whole ND group got a nice tour of the shady bars of Vienna. Around that time, I was either in a bar or wandering the streets of Prague. Fair trade, methinks.

We met up with Brian and Joe for a trip to Schonbrunn, the huge palace of some royalty and his imperial guards. The gardens there are really impressive and have a zoo and a dozen or so really impressive fountains. The view from the top of the greenhouse thingy they had at the top of the hill was of all of Vienna, and was really cool, though I still prefer standing next to a place and feeling the size of it. We headed to the Stadtpark and grabbed a quick drink, then ended up going to some small café to get dinner. I got bean soup, and it was both a) gross and b) too hot to eat. I did get to try some pancake soup and some calamari, which was not as bad as I expected. Also, I can now order food and stuff in German. I need to try it in the States and see how it works. Maybe at a Don Pablo’s.

Afterwards we went back to the girls’ apartment and, after about an hour got some ice cream then I came home. I planned on going to bed at like 11, but I had to write this drivel and try to post pictures. So now it’s 1:10 AM and I have to get up at 8. Plus my internet died, so this won’t be posted until tomorrow morning. Until then, adieu.