Central / Eastern Europe Trip — Czech Republic

This trip summary is taking way too long to write. This Thursday, we leave for the second long trip, were we’ll travel throughout Germany, France, and Belgium. A little more local, but still highly anticipated.

Hungary
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Estonia

We got to Prague at about one or two in the afternoon. We checked into our hotel. And it was amazing.

Every set of students got one of the corner rooms. Meaning, it was a suite with a huge balconey.

* large entry room
- roughly double the entire size of your average hotel room (especially in Europe)
- full set of furniture, desk, table, TV, mini fridge
* balconey
- again, about the same size of your average hotel room, went around the corner, scenic overview of Prague
* bedroom
- Comfortable beds, nicely furnished, clean
* one and a half bathrooms!
- in a frigging hotel, we had a crapper, then we had a seperate bathroom with great shower, double sinks, foot washing thing.

This hotel was great. The continental breakfast was only so-so (lots of breads and pastries, no eggs), and it was about a half hour’s walk from the hotel to the city center (and it was uphill), but the hotel was worth it.

Anyways, back to the trip. Adter checking in, we had to leave the hotel for the city tour. Yes, unfortunate at first. But the tour guide was actually very informative and engaging. We got to see a few of the more interesting buildings, and eventually ended up downtown, where we split up.

If you didn’t know much about Prague, like me, you’d be in for a surprise when you got there. Tourist hellhole.

I mean, it wasn’t so bad. But there were a lot of tour groups circulating around during the day. And walking around on the streets you heard more English than any other language. It seemed to be a lot of Brits. The German tourists were in full force also.

Feeding off of the masses of tourists, were tons of tiny, single-aisle stores. They all sold the same things: postcards, Russian dolls (you know, those wood ones), Soviet hats, tacky t-shirts (“CCCP”), shot glasses, other more intricate glasswares, etcetera.

Although, truthfully, I found a diamond in the rough at one place. The guy maintaining the store was obviously a hardcore Russian commie. His hat selection was very good, and in the back of the store he even had full jump suits, complete gas masks, and other sweet Soviet schwag. He seemed well-accustomed to selling military-surplus gear to young idealistic Americans. I bought a really awesome hat, and an extra red star pin. You can never have enough red star pins, trust me.

I contemplated buying a Russian doll for someone (anyone) back home, but the sheer amount of them intimidated me. Every store sold them. Which one would I buy from?

There were also street stalls set up, and they also had some cool stuff. One stall I came across had a lot of very nice metalwork, little knickknacks. I was very tempted to pick up a necklace. I haven’t worn a necklace in probably ten years.

Thursday night I just walked around a lot. Eventually wandered out of the tourist center, into slightly shady parts of town. Still felt safe though. Safer than wandering around Bratislava, at least. Bought a CD (I think it was Prague, might of been Bratislava, doesn’t matter), the new Queens of the Stone Age.

Also checked into a sleazy internet cafe for a quick surf. I seemed to of wandered into some sort of ethnic, African section of town. The guys were smoking hookahs on the ground floor, while a dozen or so computers from the early nineties were hooked in upstairs. I felt dirty after using the keyboard. But the guy running the joint was friendly enough, so hey.

Another thing I noticed about Prague immediately: how every liquor store, bar, gift shop, and convenience store sold absinthe. This is probably partly due to the fact that the Czech Republic produces so much of the stuff, and partly due to the amount of tourists hogging the streets, ready for a taste. So I picked some up Thursday night, a bottle advertising 35mg/kg of thujone, the legal limit in the EU. Walked back to the hotel, drank a glass, watched some TV, went to bed.

Friday, October 7th, we woke up fairly early. Ate breakfast, and then departed for a few meetings. Unmemorable, something about the Czech Republic, or the European Union, or politics. Something like that. They lasted from 9:30am till 5:30pm, with a few short breaks. Then, we were free for the day. But, at seven, there was an opera that we were informed about — La Traviata. After the good ballet in Bratislava, I decided to check out this opera, a steal at 16 euro. It was in Italian, with a teleprompter in the rafters translating to Czech. Suffice to say, I was totally lost during the first act. But during the intermission, I snagged a glance at a summary, and it began to make more sense. In one sentence? Your typical love story. The set was very elaborate, with a revolving center. The singing was great as far as I was concerned, and all it all, it seemed to be a fine opera.

Yeah, I really can’t tell between a good and bad opera. Well, I might pick up if one is completely atrocious, but other than that…

After the opera, I headed back to the hotel. It was nearly 10pm, and since the next day was a Saturday, which we had free, it was decided that tonight would be a good time to par-teh. Especially with such free access to the green fairy. I showered, and showed up at the designated room. First to arrive, last to leave. Spent a lot of time on their balconey, smoking a cigar and talking to a girl.

I downed my bottle of absinthe. I was mixing it with Fanta, and it was damn smooth going down. And once my bottle was done, I started on someone else’s. I guess she either didn’t particularly like it, or had had enough. I didn’t ask why she had offered it.

I won’t begin to try to describe the difference between absinthe and your traditional high-potency alcohol, but it’s there. It’s damn subtle, but there. The problem is, is that people go into it with misconceptions. Expecting to trip. It’s not going to happen. At least as far as EU-legal, cheap absinthe goes.

The party winded down at about three, just as I began to feel a bit nauseous. Passed up a pipe, went back to the hotel room, made out with the toilet a bit. Drank some water, went to sleep.

Saturday, October 8th was a memorable day. I woke up with a unique hangover. My head was clear. My stomach didn’t have that ‘heavy’ feeling that it sometimes gets (especially after a lot of malts). But I felt very sick nonetheless. Almost flu like symptoms? Anyways. Threw up some more. I couldn’t make the noon checkout time, so I had the roommate check in my key card, and I took my time packing up. The maid actually showed up exactly at noon, which was really odd. So I hustled a bit more.

I checked my bag into the luggage room, and then made my way — slowly — out of the hotel. I walked down the hill. My pace was excruciatingly slow. I felt like throwing up some more, but that might of been a bit uncouth in the middle of the sidewalk (I wasn’t in Dublin, afterall). Looking back, it’s actually quite humorous. I made it to a cafe, and ordered a glass of orange juice. Mostly so that I could sit. It was your standard eight or twelve ounces of juice. And it took me a full hour to drink it, tiny sip by tiny sip. The owners had to think that I was an odd character.

After the juice, I felt marginally better. Decided to step up to some food. Walked a little further, found a pub-sort of establishment. It was only two or so in the afternoon, so it was pretty quiet. But packed at the same time. The only seating was at the bar, which was conspicuously vacant. They were busy, so my meal took a while to arrive. I ate slowly, keeping everything down. What a battle.

Eventually had to wander back up to the hotel. I was feeling my oats again by the time we left at five. To get to Tallinn, we were flying. We arrived at the airport, sat around for a bit. Decent-sized airport. At one point, to use up some excess local currency, I bought an ice cream and a soda at one of the stores. Two of my friends were in line ahead of me, buying similar trash. When I got to the front, the girl at the register rang up my items, and then pulled a CD from underneath the counter and surreptitiously handed it to me, saying, “This is a present for you.” I dumbly accepted it without a second thought. Once out of the store, I realized that no one else had gotten one. I looked back at her, smiled.

It was a sampler, of Czech and Slovak lounge music. Not traditional lounge as in Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, but new-age, laid back trance. I guess I just looked like I’d be a bit more into it than my two compadres. Although they are hep looking cats.

I’ve added it to iTunes, and do indeed enjoy it. Thanks random Czech girl who I met for all of two seconds.

Free music rocks.

After this, I ate my ice cream, and then boarded the plane, headed towards Tallinn. It was a smaller plane, Airbus, and our group made up the majority of passengers on board. I switched seats with someone who had a severe case of pre-flight jitters, needed a window seat. Oh, and we actually got a meal. The flight was only three hours. Pleasant surprise.