Another two items

When I turned the water on in the shower this morning, the pressure was enough to push the handheld nozzle thing that I had cleverly pointed down and to the side, up and to the other side, right out of the sliding shower door and directly into my face. For a shocking moment I had no idea what was going on, and then for another shocking moment I stuck my hand out to shut the water off. When I couldn't reach it, I finally got hold of the nozzle and pointed it inward, I sat there for a moment, hair dripping with cold water, and contemplated Rooney's Law (Murphy was an optimist). I should have known then what the day would be like.

Also, I'm about at the end of my rope with "queue jumpers." I think every line I was in today, there were line cutters. Someone may get an elbow to the nose soon. Or at least a stern word from a tired, angry American who follows reasonably established social norms. My inflamed American worldview of reasonably established social norms is indignant. Maybe I'll start speaking in tongues and yell at them that way. Maybe they'll think I'm a crazy Hungarian or something... I hear Hungarians tend to be aggressive, so maybe they'd be scared into submission.

On to Vienna

Day 5

Photos are here.

And here I am. I said goodbye to Vaclav and Vera at the station, and I even got a little choked up. The people I was wary of staying with are now good friends and I hope they come to the US soon.

They’re hilarious. Vaclav had this thing he did every time he had a new beer. I’ll show it to you when I get home.

Czechs eat a LOT. And often. I never once had a hunger pang the entire time I was there. In fact, I really wanted to turn down the 4th, 5th, and 6th meals of the day, but didn't want to offend them. If I said no, they pushed me until I ate.

They also eat fast. I often think that I eat too fast, but these dudes were lapping me at every meal. There's no pause between forkfuls at all.

They drink a lot “for their health and their strength.”

I may not eat or drink for the rest of my trip. For the 4-hour train ride, they gave me a bag with three sandwiches, four apples, two beers, and a bottle of that revolting liquor (Becherovka, said to aid digestion... ha) everyone seems to love. I hate to say it, but that one will even be opened.

Vera told me that the dreams you have on the first night in a new place are about your future. I’ll have to remember the dreams I have tonight in Vienna.

--

After I arrived in Vienna, I rested and then took a walk and stopped into St. Stephen's Cathedral where some kind of concert was being set up. I was kind of excited until I realized it was that sort of modern non-denominational rockin' church kind of choir complete with bad digital piano (Tamara and Brad know what I'm talking about). I left in a hurry.

I got a slice of pizza and a gelato, and I was happy to go to sleep early.

Bohemian Paradise

Day 4

Photos are here.

We woke up early again, and ate breakfast again. Breakfasts were about five types of cheese, four types of bread, ham, fish (from a plastic container, and the only thing I didn’t like out of everything I ate… which is saying a lot considering how picky I am), juice, tea, and on this day, for me, beer. I couldn't get Vaclav to stop serving me beer. I am probably carrying 10 pounds of water weight from all the beer. I can feel it. I don’t think I’ll drink for the rest of the trip. Bah. Don’t get me wrong… I do LOVE Czech beer. It suits my taste perfectly. I will have to see if they have any of it at Belmont Station when I go home.

We left Prague at about 10am and stopped in Stara Boleslav to see the church. Of course, gorgeous. I have photos.

We drove through Mlada Boleslav and Vaclav pointed out the hospital where his son, Wenny (also a Vaclav) works (he’s almost a full-fledged doctor, and will be all the way soon). We stopped at the škoda museum (pronounced Sh-koh-dah… škodas are Czech cars… and I want one) and looked at old cars for a while. It was surprising but nice.

We then went to Mnichovo Hradiště to Wenny’s house and I met him, his wife Petra (Dad: she was wearing her Quality Truss shirt!) and their sons Wenny (another Vaclav) and Miše (I don’t know if that’s how you spell it, pronounced Mee-sha). Little Wenny was quite sick, so we didn’t stay long, but we had lunch and a beer and then Wenny went with us to Bohemian Paradise.

Truly, it is paradise. Sandstone rock formations jutting out of hills that are covered in trees. Our first stop were some castle ruins, part of a system of 30-some-odd castles from the middle ages. We took a tour and lots of photos, and then walked around in the cave-covered area, enjoying the scenery, making jokes about getting lost.

It is worth saying that on the first of May, there are many Czech traditions that must be followed. The first that I encountered was when Vera pulled over on the side of the road and she and Vaclav almost got out. Turns out that a man must kiss his sweetheart under a cherry tree on the first of May. So all day, when we saw cherry trees, Vera and Vaclav had to run under them and have a kiss. It was sweet. Since Petra couldn’t leave the house with a sick son, Wenny had to cut a cherry branch off of a tree and bring it home so that he could kiss her under it. VERY sweet indeed.

On the way tot the next destination, I saw a tree with many colorful ribbons in it. Turns out, on the first of May, young men that are available for marriage put these ribbons in the trees, and then have to guard them all day because others threaten to take down their ribbons. If someone succeeds in getting their ribbons out of the trees, I guess it’s quite a shameful thing.

At our next stop, we walked through a forest and out to a rock ledge where a huge valley could be seen for probably 100 kilometers, and the highest mountains in the Czech republic could be seen on the other side. Beyond those mountains, Poland. Beyond the mountains on the other side, Germany. Again, gorgeous.

We went back to Wenny and Petra’s where the mother of Wenny and Erika (in other words, Vaclav’s ex-wife) met us with the most WONDERFUL potato pancake sort of things (like thin mashed potatoes made into a batter with garlic and marjoram added and then fried to fried goodness) and we ate again. I can not stress how much I LOVED these things. Savory and all the floppiness of a pancake. Amazing.

I was a little weirded out when I realized who this woman was, but everyone got along swimmingly, even if Vera seemed to dial down the crazy just a little when she and Vaclav’s ex (can’t remember the name… probably Erika) were talking. The ex brought out a bottle of (I’m assuming) the same gut-torching alcohol as Tuesday night and just when I was asking if I should sip it this time, the ex shot hers. So, we had several shots and I was drunk. It was a nice evening in their back yard. Perfect weather for it. It made me miss the backyards of Portland a little.

Wenny drove Vaclav’s car (a Skoda) back to Prague, and Vaclav, Vera, and I piled into Vera’s old Mercedes and went back to Prague. I talked up Hawaii and got them excited for it the whole way back.

We went to a grocery store, where I was finally able to give Vaclav some money for everything they were buying (all for me for the train the next day) by telling him that I wouldn’t be able to use it after tomorrow).

We went back to the apartment, where Wenny brought Erika to meet us and we all had some food and alcohol and generally had riotous good times.

A trip to Pilsen

Photos are here.

We got up early because Vaclav had another appointment with the eye doctor (they had forgotten to dilate his eyes the day before, so had to do everything again), and Vera was determined to get me to St. Vitus Cathedral so I could see it before the line got long.

Before heading to the cathedral, they had to go to the post office with the car because there was something being held for Vaclav and they didn’t know if it was a letter or a big package. Turns out it was the package from my parents with all the Hawaiian stuff in it. This was a good way to get the Hawaii dialog going.

We braved traffic in the car this time, and got there before there was any line at all. I’m so glad we went again. It’s beautiful. Huge stained glass windows, one painted by Alfons Mucha (I have one of his paintings at home… classic art nouveau stuff), statues, everything. Even a solid silver statue. Vera asked if I wanted to go up, and I said yes, thinking we were going to a second level inside the church, but it turns out we went up to the tower. Huffing and puffing at the top (300 steps to be exact), we saw all of Prague. Gorgeous. Wonderful.

We went to Vera’s apartment where she had to feed her pet rat (a very nice rat) and we took the subway to Wenceslas square. I must say that after having been on the trams and busses, the subway was awesome. The stations were clean and interestingly designed, all in all quite a treat. But the escalators… because the subway is SOOOO far undergound, they have really, really long escalators. The two times we were on a long one, I got really disoriented and dizzy because I couldn’t see the top or bottom, and my brain was having issues with feeling like I should be standing at a 90° angle, parallel to the posters on the sides of the walls, but all the people were at 45° angles… very strange sensation.

At Wenceslas square, we of course had to have a coffee break and have some cake in a place that was there before the revolution (they, especially Vera, talked a lot about before and after the revolution, but I never really got to hear what it was like under communism), and hadn’t changed at all in many years, which I guess is not typical. We had cake of Prague… sort of two dense cookie-cake circles with custard in between, cinnamon and sugar on top. Very good. Especially with Vienna coffee.

We walked around and I bought souvenirs, then we went back to Vera’s, and then on to Vaclav’s.

Vera’s daughter, Vera (who I’ll call Verushka, since that’s what they called her… sort of an endearing nickname), was singing in Pilsen that night (she’s almost done with her opera studies), so she and her boyfriend Alecz (I think that’s how it’s spelled… pronounced Alesh) picked us up and we were off. Alecz is a sarcastic guy and he speaks good English. He’s a professional cello player. We got along well.

They spoke in Czech all the way to Pilsen, and when we got there, we had dinner at the Pilsner Urquell brewery… more goulash and more beer. All of it very good.

We went to the centrum where we had coffee. Vera and I went to the operahouse (gorgeous, of course) and watched two one act operas, the first a comedy about a slutty wife of a watchmaker, by Ravel, the other a tragedy about a nun whose son has died by Puccini (in which Verushka had “not the main role, but a good role.”) Afterward, we drove back to Prague. We had a beer (pivo) and said goodnight.

The classic sights of Prague

Day 2

Photos are here.

We had breakfast at about 8 am and since Vaclav had an eye doctor appointment, Vera took me up to the castle. We walked through the royal garden and up to the St. Vitus Cathedral. This place is huge and impressive and gorgeous. It’s a Gothic structure, but the buildings around it remind me of photos I’ve seen of Vienna. More 18th century stately stuff. We saw that the line to get into the cathedral was HUGE so we walked around the are for a while, looking at impressive views, making chit chat.

We descended the hill in light rain and headed to St. Nicholas’ Cathedral. It is grand an impressive on the outside with it’s green copper dome, but once we got inside, I almost exploded. Baroque. Baroque style going nuts all over everything. Pinkish marble and grayish marble, gilded everything. Crazy. I know that the baroque style is meant to wow people, but I was completely floored. I don’t know if there’s a word for what I was. I wasn’t expecting it, and I’ve certainly never seen anything like it. You’ll just have to look at the photos.

Vera and I then stopped for coffee (I had a hot chocolate), and Vaclav met us in the café. We went around the corner to eat (I had a breaded pork chop type thing with blue cheese baked into the top). And a beer.

Vera had to go to work, so Vaclav walked me over the Charles Bridge and over to the astronomical clock. It was here that I realized that my hotel would have been close and I would have been staying right in the center of the romantic old city. Oh well. He walked me up to Wenceslas square, and then we stopped for a beer. They were always asking me if I wanted a beer or some food. They have a Hobbit-like eating schedule. They seriously eat ALL THE TIME. I wasn’t hungry when I ate most of my meals.

Vaclav called his friend Petr (I think that’s how it’s spelled) because he speaks very good English, and Petr and I talked about the Czech Republic in general. Then he wanted to talk about politics. American politics. Most people I met in the Czech Republic asked me who I was voting for, and I always said, “I don’t know yet.” I figured that was better than offending anyone. Either most assumed I was a Dem, or they don’t understand the system because most of the time, they asked if I was voting for Obama or “Mrs. Clinton.” Petr has some pretty strong feelings about Bush the junior. I have a feeling most people in the world do.

After the beer break, Vaclav walked me around to more churches, and they were all equally spectacular inside.

We then had a break for “typical Czech soup” which was very good, and then went across the street to KFC for some wings. KFC. In Prague. For wings. Hm.

We went back to the flat and I had a nap. Turned out Vaclav had a nap, too.

Vaclav, Vera and I met Vaclav’s daughter, Erika and went to a restaurant called “La Boca” in the centrum where I had my first goulash. Vaclav recommended that I try it because it is a “typical Czech food.” I was a little scared because I’m such a picky eater. BUT! Goulash is amazing. I can’t really describe it… Kind of like a savory stew with some meat (this one had beef and sausage) and dumplings (this one had “a variety of Czech dumplings”) and it is just irresistibly good. Czech comfort food. With beer.

And then, bless their sweet hearts, I think Vera and Vaclav wanted me to have a fun time with some rock & roll in a place where young people hang out in the city. I think that’s why Erika was enlisted to co-sponsor the evening. We ended up in a place called “Harley’s” (after Harley Davidson, of course) where the DJ played American rock and oldies (and not bad rock and oldies, btw… Aerosmith, Tom Petty, Chubby Checker), and we had many more drinks.

Now, is it wrong to assume that something served to you in a shot glass in a bar is, in fact, a shot? I was served something in a shot glass in a bar, and after several rounds of “Na Zdravi” (pronounced nah zz-drah-vee and meaning “to health”) I shot the thing down. It burned my insides and cut them to shreds. When I put the glass down, I saw Vaclav’s almost whimpering face, jaw about on the table, eyebrows up in dumbfounded wonder… apparently this thing was to be sipped. They all laughed at the crazy American. I laughed too. Quite nice.

It was at this point that I went to the bathroom (Erika told me I’d know it because Marilyn Monroe was on the door). Inside the stall, someone had written “Czech me out,” and I found this unbearably funny. It was probably the effect of whatever I’d just had to drink, but I was in peals of laughter they probably heard back at the table. Sigh.

I then (I think to the relief of Vaclav and Vera) said I was getting tired, and we went home. On the walk back to the car, something that was apparently pretty funny happened, but I missed the joke. The sidewalks in the center of Prague are made of square stones arranged in appealing patterns. Erika found one of these stones loose and picked it up and said, “Chee chee” something, and Vera and Vaclav erupted in laughter. She tried to explain it to me, chee chee being what they say to call a cat… and I told her it was a stone… so she said “I have chee chee stone,” which once again caused riotous laughter. I laughed too, but near as I could tell, I was laughing because she had a hat for a cat? I dunno.

We took Erika home, we had a couple more beers at the apartment, and I went to sleep.

Arrival in Prague

I don’t know where to begin.

Photos are here.

First off, leaving Germany. You know that movie Toys with Robin Williams? With all the green rolling hills with a road going through it? That’s what Germany looks like around Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Seriously. With the little roads going through the grass and everything.

I have to say, I was a little bit torn about staying with Vaclav (pronounced Vahts-lahv) and Vera (pronounced Veh-dah, a single-tap “r”) in Prague. On one hand, I was having a fabulous time exploring the continent by myself, and I’m so stubbornly independent that having two people telling me what we will be doing when was not the best thought. On the other hand, the two Czechs and their families have become good friends with my parents and my mother and father gave them a glowing recommendation for hospitality. And I wanted to save some money by staying in their flat.

Any misgiving I had was quickly shorn away by their warmth and humor. These are people that are constantly laughing and really seem to love each other deeply. The only negative I can see about it is that staying so far outside the centrum took a little of the romance out of the city, but I still found it to be impressive and awesome (as in striking the awe chord within me, not as in rad, though it was that, too).

The next several posts are run-downs of my time in CZ.

Photos are here.

Day 1

The train ride to Dresden was nice, but it got nuts after Dresden. We followed the Elbe River through a valley that was ridiculously gorgeous. It was the kind of scenery that would make my mother go right out of her mind. My father would then give my mother a hard time for getting so excited, but secretly, he’d love it, too.

Vaclav and Vera picked me up at the train station and took me to Vaclav’s flat. It’s a four-storey building with a big spiral staircase (not in the romantic sense) going up one side, with each floor having a living space separated from the stairs by walls and doors. I had the second floor all to myself (though in Europe, this is the first floor, as the ground floor is the 0 floor). My own little Czech apartment.

After a snack, they took me on a drive around the city and my jaw dropped at every building we saw. We ended up at a monastery on top of a hill near Prague Castle and we looked at the view. Vera asked me what the word for palm was in English. She then told me to hold my hand out ahead of my eyes with the palm up. “There,” she said. “All of Prague in palm of your hand.”

We then had a beer at the monastery brewery. This is, I think, when the reputation began. I told Vaclav that I really like beer. This would haunt me for the rest of my stay.

We went to the local grocery store and Vaclav proceeded to buy two of almost every kind they had. “We must sample,” he said with kind of a half wink. “You must taste all.”

They paid for all of the groceries. I offered the 500 Koruna bill I had (about $20), but he tapped my hand kindly and said, “Later, later.” They paid for EVERYTHING. I wouldn’t let Vera pay for my souvenirs, so I stopped at a bankomat (ATM) and got money out. I paid for my city transportation ticket (we took busses and trams and subways almost everywhere the first two days), but that was all. Vaclav always said, “Later,” and Vera always said, “When we in Oregon.” All my meals (and there were a lot), all my beers (and there were a LOT), two books, a DVD, attraction entry fees, postcards from attractions, everything else, they paid for. I wasn’t too comfortable with this, but you can bet they’re going to be paid back in spades if they’re ever in Portland.

We went back to their flat (more like a communist era condo), and ate again. It was at this time that Vera asked me, “what month you were born in?”

“September,” I said.

Then she said (I shit you not), “You are virgin?”

And I almost spit my beer out. It took me several moments to realize that she was asking if I was a Virgo. And I was very relieved to tell her that I am a Libra. I was so confused for a second. Almost had a classic spit take. For real.

I was tired. I went to bed.

Gambrinus & Zlatopramen

Only a sec to write, but Prague is amazing. I'll catch you all up when I get to Vienna.

Czech beer is, without a doubt, the most wonderfull stuff in the world. Right up my alley, not bitter, just right.

I also discovered that I love goulash, but I don't love the "fishes" they eat out of a plastic container.

I fear that my hosts have stuffed me so full of food and beer that I may not walk again. We started drinking about an hour ago because today is a holiday. Oh boy!