Prague Zoo

It was really great to get back to Prague. Prague has great things.
Like džirafe.

"Are you a plant? I am a giraffe."

There are also antelopes (antelopy), zebras, flamingos and peacocks.

House and antelopy.

Peacock on a roof!

Flamingo fight.

Also included in the trip are see-saws and the most terrifying lift EVER. It goes to the top of a hill/mountain thing, and the safety belt is an extremely loose chain. We all used the chain, even though it probably would have been useless. It made us feel better.

See-saws are fun. I got some serious air.

Prague zoo is great. If you're ever in Prague and have some time to kill, go for a trip!

Easter in Prague

The Czechs have a very interesting Easter tradition.
This tradition involves beating women with braided willow sticks. In return for the beating, men receive whiskey, eggs and sweets.
The men are supposed to recite a poem while they beat women, and since my friends found it, I haven't stopped hearing it. Seriously. It's almost the end of April (don't make me leave!) and my friends recited the poem yesterday.
The braided willow stick is called pomlazka and can be purchased most everywhere. This was excellent, as it allowed me the chance to purchase one to defend myself with. And defend I did. Everybody was evenly beaten by the end of the holiday. I may or may not have added a chair into the mix. Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

The Lennon Wall

For one of my photo class assignments I had to take pictures of tourists on the Charles Bridge. So I did.
I walked from the East side of Prague across the river to the West side, and while I was there I went looking for the Lock Gate. I don't know what it's really called, but according to tradition when you find the love of your life, you're supposed to write your and their name on a lock, then connect it around one of the poles on the gate so you'll be together forever. It's very cute, but the Czech Republic has a very high divorce rate, so it's not quite working.

Those shiny things are padlocks.
On my way to the gate, I passed the Lennon Wall.

There were also people on Segways, which was funny.

Haha. Segways.

This was on the wall next to the Gate.

There's a new art installation behind Old Town Square/Next to school.
It's the word Revolution (Revolucion, because it's Czech), and it's all done using keys. According to my positively adorable photo professor, when the revolucion started and the communists were getting kicked out, the people stood in the streets and shook their keys at the communists. Sort of like groggers on Purim, but as a way to say "Haha, you are done here, get out!".
The giant R is the R from the daily paper from the Communist time.

I also saw a Cubist street light, which is tucked into a little corner of a street that nobody but me was on. It was tempting to do a Singin' in the Rain, but nobody was there, so I'll try to do it another day.

Prague Metro

The Prague Metro is based on an honor system. You're supposed to buy a ticket, but you don't really have to, unless you get caught by the transit police while they're checking your tickets.

The first week we were here, everybody got checked by the transit police at least once at the Muzeum stop. There are always cops there checking, so if you're going there your best bet is to have a ticket.

Of course, because I didn't speak any Czech I didn't realize they were the transit cops. They were gesturing and speaking at me, and I didn't noticed the badges.

Instead of showing them my pass, I put up a hand and said "Ne, dekuji" (No thank you), thinking they were selling something.

Later, I found out that every single one of my friends thought the same thing, and reacted the same way.
Funny how that works.

Smazeny Syr

Let's talk about smazeny syr.

1. It's amazing.
2. It's amazing.
3. It's amazing.

There you go.

Smazeny syr is a food that is very, very Czech. It's something that's not particularly good for you in mass quantities, fried in oil, and then topped with something that's not particularly good for you.

Smazeny syr is fried cheese- syr meaning cheese and smazeny meaning fried. The main cheese used in smaz is Eidam, which is a pretty mild, and by some judges flavorless, cheese. I think it's good.

To make smaz, you take a hunk of cheese, cover it in flour, dip it in egg, coat it in bread crumbs, and fry it in oil. When it's a delightful golden brown color, you remove it from the oil, pat it dry, and serve with tartar sauce.

You can get smazeny syr in restaurants, where it's served as pieces, sort of like a gigantic mozzarella stick. Vendors also sell smaz in Wenceslas Square, where it's served as a patty in a hamburger bun. Then you can put mayo, ketchup, and/or mustard on it.

It's sort of like the dirty water hot dogs of NYC, except much more likely to clog your arteries quicker.

The Czech people really know how to live.

Terezin

On Friday, I visited Terezin.

Terezin was originally a fortress, built between 1780 and 1790 by Emperor Joseph to protect access routes to Bohemia. In World War II, the residents were evacuated and it was used as a ghetto/transit camp by the Nazis.
Approximately 140,000 men, women and children were deported to Terezin. Within Terezin, there was also "The Small Fortress". 32,000 prisoners passed through there. Both Jewish and non-Jewish POWs went through the Small Fortress. At least 10,000 people alone died in the Small Fortress. From Terezin, prisoners were sent to other camps, usually Auschwitz-Birkenau. The prisoners were kept in rooms with two tier "bunk beds". There were usually about 100 people in the room. In some of the smaller rooms, about 60 prisoners would be kept, and they would have to sleep standing up.

Naturally, the conditions were horrific. Terezin was used as a "model camp" to convince outsiders that nothing was wrong. In preparation for a Red Cross visit, a hospital was created. The hospital was clean and functioning and had supplies. Needless to say, it was never used. The Red Cross visited, and did absolutely nothing.

After WWII, the town was re-inhabited. Today it's a regular town, although it was a bit gray on the day I visited. Apparently a majority of the inhabitants are mentally disabled. There is a home for many of these people in the center of the town, but they just sort of roam the town. The rest of the townspeople either work at the Terezin museum or in some of the shops.

The museum for Terezin was oddly sterile and cold. Right inside the entrance for the Small Fortress is a cafe. After our tour, we were all hungry, so we sat in the cafe. Then we left. It was strange. I'm still hoping to get to Auschwitz.

 

Not the sign everybody knows. It's strange that it was in Terezin, as Terezin wasn't a work camp.

 

Window in the small room. Only source of light. It wasn't opened, so it wasn't a source of air.

 

Barbed wire.

 

Gavrilo Princip, the man who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and started WWI, was imprisoned in this solitary confinement cell.

 

Wall used for target practice/executions. You can see four areas that are shot at.

Solitary confinement cells in the Small Fortress.

Fasanky!

So last week was pretty boring (comparatively speaking) as most of my friends were getting over minor colds (sorry guys!) and we let the week be filled with R/R.
The weekend however, included a weekend trip to two towns in Moravia to celebrate the Czech version of Mardi Gras, which may or may not be called Fasanky (hacek over the s!).
In the spirit of Mardi Gras, it was completely ridiculous.

 

Clowns!

Hokej!

Again! This time we went to an HC Slavia Praha game. Slavia Praha has an nice new arena where you can sit in the front row next to the penalty box for under fifteen dollars.

Did I mention I love this exchange rate? Because I do.

Bad! Think about what you've done.

Holesevice Batman!

Dear Prague,

I love you, never change.

Kisses,
Me

Prague Castle Part Dva!

For my Architecture History course, the professor shows us all around Prague. After all, what's the point of a Czech architecture class in Prague if you're not actually going to see it?

On Monday we went to the Prague Castle for the second time. My professor has a funny habit of just leaving us after our tours are done, which is interesting, because we're about 15 Americans in Prague who speak very, very little Czech. But we figured that that would be the worst case scenario, and we'd all find our way back to our dorms.

Turns out we were wrong.

Lots of Stuff! Part Jeden

Playing catch up sucks, but that's what happens when your University acts way too stupid for it's prestige and only gets one wifi router for 60 kids.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.

So what have I been up to?
Well, class for starters.
But that's not important.

I hosted a pot luck dinner last week for a bunch of my friends. It was delicious! I made cookies, one of my friends brought ice cream, and two of my friends made four pounds of modified potato salad (no mayo here). It was delicious.


Academically and Prague-ally speaking, I saw Prague Castle for the first time this trip. It's gorgeous. It's a bizarre mix of architecture, ranging from 11th Century Romanesque to 20th Century Neo-Gothic.

The best view of Prague is from one of the fortifications of the castle.

More after jump.

We Interrupt This Blog...

to bring you this very important news: The exchange rate is now 18.66 Czech crowns to 1 US Dollar.
BUY BUY BUY.

Czech Opera

Thanks to my University, I got to see the premiere of Cosi Fan Tutti at what I think was the State Opera House for free!
The opera house was an absolutely stunning building:

The pomegranate at the bottom is the sign for Cosi Fan Tutti.

The opera was really...weird. The actors were excellent, and the singing was wonderful, but the plot and staging and sets were really weird. My friends were offended on behalf of females by the end.

 

It was cool to see though. We were all the way at the top level.

The actors.

Big flowers for the premiere.

The actors in front of the weird set.

The plot basically consisted of Woman A loves Man A and Woman B loves Man B. Then Friend of Boys convinces the Men that women are fickle and the Women will cheat on them if given the opportunity. He tells them to pretend to go to war, and then come back in disguise and see what the women will do. The Women are, understandably, very upset, and vow to be faithful.

Upon hearing that the Men are at war, the maid (the woman in the red dress) tells the Women to go out and have fun, because the Men are very far away, and by the time they come back, the Women will be married somewhere.

The Men come back disguised as "Albanian nobles" and woo the women, only Man B is wooing Woman A and Man A is wooing Woman B. One of the Women capitulates the first day, and her original lover, being highly irritated by the fact that she was so unfaithful, resolves to make the other Woman give in as well. The other Woman has said she is going to dress as a man and go off to war, but about 30 seconds after that solo ends, the Man comes in and she immediately changes her mind and goes off with him.

The Friend convinces the Women to marry the "Albanian nobles", and they do in a sham ceremony. Then the "Albanian Nobles" leave, and the Men "Return". They find the "marriage certificates" and feign ignorance and outrage. The Women apologize, and say they deserve death, but conveniently forget to be really pissed off that you know, the Men completely messed with them.

In the end, the reverse couples agree to get married, but the original couples clasp hands as they stand with the other partners.

....Like I said, weird.

Czech Hokej!

I went to a Czech hockey game the other day- two Prague teams: Sparta and Slavia.
We were at the Tesla Arena, which is Sparta's arena. I was originally rooting for Slavia, but they wound up getting crushed and I really wanted to cheer.

It was a great game to root for Sparta- they won 4-1. Poor Slavia goalie.
It turns out that "Ice Sluts" are an international phenomenon!

Henrik would have spit on them.

The advertisements are rather unfortunately placed.

"One city = One club"

Ouch, for Slavia.

Budvar!

Happy Goalie! Happy Goalie should be happy, he won the game.

So this guy named Vyborne scored two goals, which started the crowd chanting "VY-BOR-NE", which was awesome, because it means GOOD.

There were back and forth chants in the crowd, where one side would yell SPARTA! and the other would respond PRAHA! (HC Sparta Praha is the full name of the team) There was also a clapping cheer that ended in SPAR-TA! which kept making me want to yell POTVIN SUCKS!

There were definitely some penalties called- I believe there was a hooking call at one point, and a fight was definitely called. It was awesome. The first time a fight broke out my row was told to sit down, but then a full fight started and we were allowed to stand.

Punching!

More punching!

There were no fight straps on the jerseys- one person's jersey was completely off by the end.

At the very end of the game there was a handshake line, and then one of the strangest things I've ever seen- Sparta lined up at their blue line, and the crowd did a chant. After the chant, the team went to center ice and stood in a circle. Then they ran and belly flopped onto the ice!

It was really weird, but kind of cool.

It was a really fun game- my friend, who had never watched hockey (we were supposed to watch a game together so I could teach her, but alas, it never happened), came out of the game jumping and so excited to go to another game!

Midweek Update

In the last few days I went to a place called Beer Factory, toured the Jewish Town, went to Tesco about three times, went to the Louis Armstrong Restaurant, and made fun of New Jersey.

But then again, it's New Jersey. How could I not?

More (not making fun of New Jersey) after the jump. This one's a long post.

Czeching Out Prague

I know, I'm hilarious, right?
So I finally made it around Prague- I fell asleep at about 5 the first day and didn't wake up.
I had my first beer- it's a little bit sharp, but I suppose I'll have to adjust to like it.
I also had my second beer. The director of the program wasn't kidding when they said the beer was strong! I had one before going to bed and it was just the thing I needed- slept like a baby.
I went to a bar with a friend, and after walking in and sitting down at the bar, the bartender asked if I was 18. Oh well.
It's cold here, but not much colder than in New York. Unlike New York, I have to worry about falling icicles and snow. Every few blocks there will be an area with police tape up- that means there's a lot of snow or ice on top of the building that might fall and hit you. Fun stuff.

 

They don't have signs like this. There are a lot of signs, but they're all in Czech.

This is a place a few blocks down from my dorm. It has something to do with a tailor- Krejci (the C should have a hacek- the little V mark) means tailor.

I'm still working on figure out the proper key codes to add haceks to all my letters.
Going out to dinner shortly!
Na shledanou! (Nah Skleh-dah-nou. Think Canadian oo for the ou)

Prague Arrival!

Finally arrived in Prague today!
From JFK to Paris

(Paris lit up at 4 am their time)

and from Paris to Prague!

I don't think this is Prague. I think it's like the Newark to New Jersey, or the area by JFK to Manhattan. Close, but the "flyover area".

A rainbow followed our plane from Paris to Prague, which I thought was a good sign.

More after the jump.