Back to reality…

I only have a couple more weeks here in Prague and then it’s back to reality; coming home from a four month vacation with no money and an internship that doesn’t pay.  This isn’t a regrettable or even unusual position for a college student to be in during a rough stretch in the economy.  But it shines light on the fact that the life I lived here in Prague will be missed.  Not only does the city somewhat resemble the Magic Kingdom, but the money somewhat resembles Monopoly money.  Spending a semester in a country that is not on or pegged to the Euro was one of the smarter moves I have made in recent years.  Everything is at least 50% off.   Although the simple fact that everything is on sale is probably the reason I am running low on funds.  It’s like my mom, doesn’t matter what the item is, as long as it’s on sale.  Nonetheless, the four months of lavish lifestyle here in Prague have been a treat.  Why cook when you can pick up a sandwich for $1.50, eat like a king for under $10, and buy beer on the street for 40 cents.  With the money our program gave us to for housing we found a great apartment, a regular maid service, and still have a little left over.  The apartment is excessively nice, but it has some nice features for unwinding after a long day of wandering around.  Here are two of my favorites:

The maid service we found is one of the more interesting operations I have come across in the Czech Republic.  There are two components to the business, the maid herself, and the maid-pimp.  For those of you who watch Seinfeld, you know exactly what I am talking about.

I don’t know how to nicely describe our maid.  It’s ironic I guess, as she comes to clean, I can’t help but feel dirty just by her presence near me.  It isn’t so much that she in unattractive—well, that is a lot of it—but it’s the clothes she wears.  I don’t want to guess how old she is, a life of ripping cigs really distorts your age, but she is certainly a lot older than the 10^th grade girl she dresses like.  It’s gross.

The maid-pimp, Radek, on the other hand is a whole different story.  He shows up to our apartment once a month to collect her (but probably mostly his) money.  He is typically wearing slacks and a blazer.  He has the Czech shaved head, but not the typical pissed off glower.  There is an aura of confidence and optimism.  I would guess it is because he is probably in the top one percent economically in Prague.  He asks if the maid is doing her job, and then he has on his way.

While our apartment is pretty nice, there are without doubt a few oddities as well.  Here is the painting that greets us every day as we walk in the door.  It even glows in the dark.

Our landlord claims that the owners of the building stay in our unit when they are in town, and out of longing for their wives, they had them painted on the walls.  It is possible that is true, but one way or another it’s weird.  Here is a picture of the key to our door.

And on the topic of weird, the most bizarre sight walked in front of me at the Metro station about a month ago.  There was a pair of twins, I’d say in their 50’s (but again you never know in Europe) with the exact same gray mushroom haircut.  They were dressed identical head to toe: same shoes, shirt, coat, even the same necklace.  Best of all, they had the same purse in one hand and the exact same magazine in the other.  This is the best picture we could get without being caught.

To catch you up on the past few weeks, I have been doing a bit of traveling, visiting Krakow (and Auschwitz on the way home), and Amsterdam.  I will try to get more details up soon.

Prague has yet to hit 50 degree temperatures,it went from 40’s and cloudy everyday in March, to 70’s and sunny everyday in April.  I came home from Italy to a completely new place.  And since it has been nice, I found my new regular hangout spot, Vysehrad. It was a tenth century castle in Prague just a few blocks from my apartment, but is now a park up on top of the castle walls.

I am writing this blog now in a coffee shop called “the Globe” which is about a ten minute walk from my apartment.  I came here with some friends from Minnesota during the NCAA tournament to watch the gophers, and one of the managers came over and struck up a conversation that went like this:

“That’s funny you are watching this, I’m from Minnesota.”

“No way, so are we, where about?”

“Minnetonka.”

“Get out of town, we are too.  So did you go to Minnetonka High School?”

“Pfft, no I went to Hopkins, I graduated in 1994.”

Now that’s what I call small world.  On the other side of the Earth I found someone who lives five minutes from my house back in the real world of Minnetonka, Minnesota—my next travel destination after this weekend’s trip to Budapest.  See you all soon.

Passover in Paris

So a few weeks ago my parents were in town.  What could possibly spoil a week of free meals?  Passover, great.  Thankfully in the name of the reform movement, we made the executive decision to indulge in fine Czech cuisine, and better yet, fine French cuisine during our two days in Paris.  We powered through the first day and a half in France, saw the main sites: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc De Triumf, Saint Chapelle, the Louvre, etc.  All I had left was to hit up Las Du Falafel, from what I hear, the best falafel in the world.  This was really the only suggestion I had been given from my friends who had visited.  So after a long morning of touring, we found on the map that we were pretty close to this falafel place.  It turns out Paris is really big, an inch on the map was really far.  We walked for an hour before my Dad and I gave in and asked for directions.  We eventually got headed the right way.  Finally we made it, and it was closed… for Passover.  I guess that’s fair punishment for skipping the holiday.

Italia

To quote my economics professor here at Charles University, “north of Rome they drive like crazy Germans; south of Rome they drive like crazy Egyptians.” I guess that means you have to be a crazy American to attempt to rent a car in Italy. Well what else are 21 year old college males good for? Don’t worry Mom, I made it home in one piece. It was actually that very same economics teacher who told us to scrap our plan to take trains city to city and pick up a car, so before I get to my trip I owe a shout-out to Petr. Once a week Zander and I have a three hour class with this guy, and he usually only makes it 45 minutes before getting sidetracked with travel discussion. He has been to just about every square inch of Europe, mostly by hitch-hiking. In fact, not long ago he hitch-hiked to Iran where the people were “very nice,” so we were slightly nervous he may be a little crazy himself. As it turns out he was right on the money with this idea.

Lago di Garda

Our $12 flight dropped us off at a small airport outside of Milan where Zander and I met Ross Leder, picked up the car, and hit the road. For the first leg of our drive it was pouring rain and we spent much of our time on the motorway so we didn’t see a whole lot. I think we were driving along side some mountain ranges but it was so foggy I couldn’t tell. Our only stop on our way to Florence was in Sirmione, a small peninsula town on Lago di Garda.  The town couldn’t have been more than 100 meters wide, (that’s right, I’m on the metric scale now) brimming with restaurants, gelato stands, shops, and the lake on both sides. We ate our first authentic Italian meal here, and then continued on our way to Florence. As we were walking into our hotel in Florence, Glotter and Neili had just gotten in and were looking for the hotel as well. It was unbelievable timing, must be some sort of extraordinary roommate sense.

The next morning we got up bright and early to return this car so we could pick up an automatic for the drive to Rome. Right before we dropped it off, we pulled into some 1920’s style gas station. We paid ahead and went to fill it up, but couldn’t get the gas cap off for the life of us. As we were fiddling with this thing for a good ten minutes, an Italian pulled up and started filling his bike with the other side of the pump. When we finally got the cap off and tried to fill up our car, the credit was gone. We all looked at each other thinking the same thing; “Wait, did he just steal our gas?” The guy who was supposed to be working in the booth was nowhere to be found, so we left taking the loss. When we were waiting for the bus, this guy finally rolled into his little hut so we made a dash to get our money back. You know, for how much we had heard about crazy Italian driving, getting the gas cap off and getting the car in reverse—in a way other than throwing it in neutral and pushing it— were our only problems. We spent the day walking around Florence. We climbed to the top of the Duomo, saw some renaissance art, and enjoyed the nice weather.

Florence from the Duomo

All semester leading up to this trip I had been taking photos in restricted areas in preparation for the security of Michelangelo’s David.

We met up with Andy Stein who gave us a personal tour of the city and took us to a great lunch spot, home to the best lasagna I’ve ever had.  Andy showed us around Florence for the rest of the evening.  Thanks again if you are reading this.

The next day was the sole reason we rented a car instead taking a train to Rome. Our route took us on a small winding road through wine country in Tuscany. We stopped for a tasting at a small winery along the way and after one glass-worth of wine they were able to convince us to stay for lunch. We got back on the road and made our next stop at Castellina. After walking around for a little, we were headed to Siena. To be honest I didn’t know a thing about Siena, but it turned out to be one of the coolest cities I have seen. I liked the city itself more than Florence, although a lot of that was because it wasn’t crawling with tourists.

Siena

The town square was very unique; it was round, completely enclosed by buildings and had a bowl shaped ground. It wasn’t so much for walking through, but more of a central hangout place. There were several outdoor cafes and people sitting in the center socializing.

It was on the way to Rome where we learned what Italian drivers were all about. We would be driving 100 miles per hour and getting passed. Their go-to move is to race up behind you, flash the brights and swerve around you. It’s all just a game to them: every man for their self, no enforcement, and the most creative driver wins. It’s a lot like Mario Kart. Oh, note to the east coast, I had an Italian pronounce M(ah)rio for me, so I’m not buying this M(air)rio’s Pizza in New York pronunciation logic. It was on this stretch to Rome where Ross graduated from the Italian school of driving, which was absolutely crucial to our mission to return the car by midnight. I wish I could go into more detail, but there is no possible way to put it into words or pictures. Let’s just say the attempt wouldn’t have been a success in any other city.

We got an early start the next day to make the most of Rome. Our first stop on our walk was the Vatican. I should mention that this was the day Obama was speaking in Prague, and I was really disappointed to be out of town for it. But as we made our way into the Vatican, there were thousands of people gathered in the square. As it turned out I had accidentally stumbled upon a speech being given by the Pope. I guess that was decent consolation.

The Pope's speech at the Vatican

We continued our walk stopping by the castle from Angels & Demons, the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, as well as several other ancient structures. The thing I really liked about Rome was the amount of cool stuff sprinkled randomly all over the city.

I met up with Lauren and spent the rest of the day with her at the ruins: the Colosseum, Palatine and the Forum.  It’s surreal to be surrounded by bits and pieces from over 2,000 years ago.

The Colosseum

The Forum

Some people think Rome is a dirty, overcrowded city, but I thought it was nothing short of incredible.  The day I spent in Rome is without question one of my top few favorite, and certainly most memorable, of my stay in Europe.

Barcelona

Wednesday, March 25^th 2009: After essentially living in a Michigan-like climate for several months, I was beyond ready to spend five days in Barcelona enjoying the beaches and parks. I got all packed up and made my way to the airport. I waited in line and handed my passport to the woman working the departure check-in area. “I’m sorry, you are not on this flight” she said as she handed my passport back to me. After a brief spaz that she didn’t even understand, I collected myself and made some long distance calls to get everything straightened out. After finally getting through to STA Travel I learned that they booked my flight for April 25^th rather than March 25^th, even though my flight home was scheduled for March 30^th. Lets get this straight, they had me flying home from Spain before I was scheduled to get there? Figure that one out.  They refused to change the flight for me, so I headed home and looked for every possible way out there. I bought another ticket for Friday, so much for the $130 STA voucher from my program.

Thursday, March 26^th 2009: Spent the day wandering around Prague, saw some cool stuff, but ended up losing my keys.

Friday, March 27^th 2009: Alright let’s try this again. Two days and $175 later I was in Barcelona. The only problem, I brought the Prague rain with me. So instead of the long beach vacation I planned it turned into a culture experience, which looking back, I enjoyed much more. The first night, Lauren Scholder and I walked around town, stopping into a few local spots. The first was a tiny champagne bar that was absolutely packed. When we ordered a drink they said we had get a side order of food as well.  Since the menu was in Catalan, I resorted to just pointing to something and hoping for the best. The champagne was excellent, as for the mystery meat; let’s just say the two bites I ate will likely be my last. We actually ended up trading plates with a French crew for a much more familiar-looking form of meat. Next we walked to a Tapas bar, where we met this Irish couple. Actually they were siblings… but kind of looked like a couple. That’s awkward. Well either way they were very interesting, we talked for over an hour. It’s true what they say about the Irish, they have great accents and love to drink. They easily looked like they were having the best time of anyone at the bar, talking to a couple kids in college twenty years younger than them. Oh, and the tapas were good too.

The next day, I went to a Spanish restaurant so I could try this Paella stuff. Although, I really only got it because it’s in a Seinfeld episode. What was brought out to me kicked off day two of Michael’s cultural experience in Spain. Here is a description of the plate: some rice at the bottom and four seafood animals (that were likely alive that morning) complete with shell, legs, a face, and eyes that were staring right back at me.

Seafood Paella

Gross.  I had no interest in eating it, but I had to at least make an attempt since we went with a couple of 2001 graduates and I wanted to act mature and sophisticated. Paella was definitely an experience, but I can’t say I see it anywhere in my future plans. After lunch we walked down Las Ramblas and stopped in this unreal open-air market. It had everything. One stand had all different types of animal “leftovers” and I don’t think you want any more details than that.

Sunday was the most enjoyable day of trip, highlighted by probably the coolest thing I have done in Europe. Lauren and I took a tour of the city on a go-cart. It was on 3 wheels and was GPS guided telling us where to go and what was what. Besides getting to see the city, riding around on the streets in this little thing was a lot of fun. It was without question the best way I have ever seen a city.

We drove through the 92 Olympic grounds (AKA where the Dream Team wiped the floor with Arvydis Sabonis.) After, I made my way to Park Guell. The park was designed entirely by this Spanish Architect, Antoni Gaudi and was unlike anything I have ever seen before. I don’t even know how to explain it in words so I’ll just leave a few pictures.

Before I knew it, my shortened weekend had come to an end, and I never even made it to the beach. It’s alright though; I am already looking forward to coming back to Spain some day. Barcelona was one of my favorite cities I have ever been to, and there is much more on the Iberian Peninsula I would love to explore.  Oh, and one more thing for those of you still reading (besides my parents), the nightlife was pretty wild.

Top 10 hardest things to find in the CZK

Don’t get me wrong, Prague is an amazing city and there is nowhere I would rather be right now, but I assumed there would be aspects of American culture that would be missed.  Surprisingly, the adjustment couldn’t have been easier. I have found that it’s not the important things that are tough to find out here, rather, it’s the small, simple, and in my opinion comical things that do not exist in the magical city of Prague.

So here is my top ten list of the most difficult things to find in Prague:

10.  Water: I always drink a glass when I can, because you never know when you are going to get your next one.  It’s not so much that there is a shortage of water, but there is an excess of beer.  The fact that beer is cheaper than water can’t be good for my health.

9. Credit Cards: There are definitely some things money can’t buy in Prague, and it’s a good thing because for everything else Mastercard is nowhere to be found.  Don’t ask me why, but credit cards haven’t made it to the restaurants in central Europe.  On the way home from Switzerland our bus stopped at a McDonald’s in Austria… about 80 went in, and 77 left hungry because they didn’t take credit.

8.  Basketball: I’m so desperate to see a little basketball, I think I’d even watch Wisconsin play if it was on.

Well, maybe not.

7.  Vowels: The word for city is mestska.  Is it just me or is that a lot of consonents in a row?

6.  Leashes: Everyone here has a dog, and none of them are on leashes.  The amazing part is they never stray, the training of the dogs in this country is incredible.

5.  A guy with a woman NOT way out of his league: The girls here are extremely attractive, and lets just say the men all look pretty much the same: shaved head, pissed off, smoking a cigarette with his un-leashed dog following obediently behind.

4.  Items in quantity: You can’t find a 24 pack of coke or a case of beer anywhere.  Although, it’s not the end of the world when a half liter of beer is only 35 cents.  I guess the concept of buy more, save money hasn’t hit the scene as a one day subway pass is 100 crown, and a three day is 330 crown.

3.  Cheap fast food: There is a McDonald’s or KFC on just about every street, but for some reason they are not cheap nor fast.  They are legitimate restaurants that are clean, well designed, and the women working there wear  mini-skirts (see Zander’s top 10).  Since I have been in college, I have never gone this long without a Chipotle or Jimmy Johns.

2.  Doors that make sense: I have three issues with the doors here.  I was knocking the doors in London in my first blog entry, as it turns out that was just a preview of what was to come.  In London the doors were all backwards, but here you have no idea what you are getting.  Push, pull, doorknobs in the middle of the door, doorknobs that don’t turn, etc.  Second, there is the problem of narrow doors which are impossible to hold for the person following behind you.  The third person walking always ends up with the door in their face.  Third, and maybe most irritating is the speed of the automatic doors. If you approach them like a standard automatic door, game over.

1.  Condiments: Those of you who have ever seen my fridge at home or school, know that there is actually very little real food as it is packed with various condiments.  I never realized how much I utilized the options until they were gone.  My three favorite sauces are ranch, Frank’s Red Hot, and ranch and Frank’s mixed together, and I have yet to get my mits on any of them.

So… who wants to move to Switzerland with me?

All I have to say is that Switzerland is the place to be. I spent the weekend in Interlaken, and as much as I love Prague, I kind of wish I was still there.  All semester at Michigan, Michael Glotter and I talked about how great it would be to ski in the Swiss Alps (even though we don’t ski).  I’ll admit it’s usually all talk with us, but believe it or not, we actually made it happen.  Having not skied in ten years I was a little nervous, but after about ten minutes I picked it back up and quickly realized I haven’t missed out on a whole lot at Highland Hills; where you take a 10 minute chairlift for a 5 minute run.  The skiing up in the mountain was incredible to say the least.  Our first run was a winding hour and a half down to the bottom. We spent the entire day on about 3 total runs from top to bottom, and the fresh powder was crucial for the wipeouts Kanter and I had when we ventured off the course.

Glotter, Kanter and I

The day was a blast, but it only got better.  The next day, myself and a couple others went paragliding off of a mountain.  It was like having wings, flying around a few thousand feet up.   We were up in the air for almost a half hour. Words and pictures can’t really describe it, but here are a couple of my favorites.

The highlight of the trip could have been later that night.  We went back up in the mountains with sleds, and the little kid inside of us came out.  Sledding was unbelievable though, we had to be moving over 30 miles per hour and I definitely wiped out my share of times.  Feesh- if you are reading this, we wish you could have been there.

Sledding in the Mountains

Our last day we walked around town; it truly was one of the most amazing places I have ever been to.  And for such a small country, they got a lot of things right.  Not only do they pretty much run the banking system in Europe, they eat candy like it’s their job.  Chocolate shops were on every corner (between Swiss Army Knife stores).  And in the bathroom at a restaurant we ate at, the toilets automatically cleaned the seat with every flush.  Definitely an upgrade over the bathroom on the bus we were stuck on for 12 hours.  The ride would have been alright if the air conditioning worked and we didn’t have to take a two hour detour… thanks Germany.  At least the rough bus ride made coming home a lot more exciting after one of the best weekends I’ve had in quite awhile.

Interlaken

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,

Have I ever told you how much I love you?  I love you so much that I went to your native Norway last weekend, and donated my entire life savings.  After living like a king in Prague, I thought there was no stopping me, not even the most expensive country in the world.  Woops.  The weekend in Scandinavia cost an arm and a leg.  In Copenhagen, I went to a little sandwich shop called Ida Davidsen’s and spent over $20 on an open-faced roast beef sandwich.  I didn’t even get two slices of bread.  Although, I must say, the deli meat was so good it brought me closer to the 50% of me that attends high holiday services rather than the 50% that regulars the JW in Harvey, ND. Even the Copenhagen airport was loaded with shops like Hugo Boss, Gucci, Burberry… you get the idea.  I did enjoy my stay except our hostel smelled like feet and this British guy tried to steal my bed.  On our way to Norway I read about places to eat in my Frommer’s guide and found that some restaurants cost upwards of $150 per person, so Zander and I chose nicer lodging over nicer meals and hit the McDonald’s.  The number 1 cost me 11 bucks.  We spent the day exploring Oslo, walked through a sculpture garden and saw some Viking ships.  The people were so nice, I see where you get it from.  When we were standing on the sidewalk trying to figure out the map, a woman stopped and asked if we needed help and walked us to where we were headed giving us a tour of the city along the way.  Our last stop was Stockholm, Sweden, which was surprisingly different from Norway.  We spent the day walking around seeing the sights (aka tall, blonde hair, blue eyed girls).  We also went to the Nobel museum, saw the city from a lookout and went to a nightclub/karaoke bar.  The adventure began the next morning however.  When we got in we discovered that the airport we were flying out of was a smaller airport 100 kilometers from the city, and arranged a bus to get us there.  Zander and I both had our alarms set for 6:40 am, but due to a party of Frenchmen that kept us awake at 5 am, we didn’t wake up until 8 and missed the bus.  We booked it to the train station, but missed that too.  As if i hadn’t spent enough money on the weekend we had to find a cab that ran us $110.  I managed to make it home though.  So after giving your homeland’s economy a nice boost, I thought I would let my favorite mom in the world (and anyone else reading this) know that I am currently accepting donations…

Talk to you soon.

-Michael

Walt Disney Presents “Prague”

I have been here in Prague- Praha as it is called here- for a couple of weeks now, and there is no better way to describe the city than it is straight out of a Disney movie.  Cobblestone streets and random castles make up the scene here.

Old Town Square

It’s one of the few cities, particularly in the Bohemia area, that was left completely in tact through World War II. It seems every building has been standing for a good 400 years, and over 1000 in some cases.  Here is my view from class:

Charles University

I have always admired Michigan as an old, historic school, dating back to 1817, but my school here, Charles University, as well as the Charles Bridge have been standing since the 1300’s.

Charles Bridge

Both date back to the reign of King Charles IV, apparently he had a thing for naming stuff after himself.  In fact, I live right off of Charles Square.  Here’s a picture of my next door neighbor:

Neighbors

Although my first post did nothing more than poke fun at the Brits, exploring London and a new culture was a fun way to dive into my semester in Europe.  I can’t put into words how excited I am to be here.  College is a learning experience, and to me, much of the learning is done outside of the classroom.  Going away to school was a way to see new things and meet new people from different backgrounds.  Studying abroad is like the out-of-state experience on steroids (minus the coasties and JAPS- no offense Marc).  I chose an independent program as opposed to a school-sponsored program, so there are 100 of us from all over the country– and only 23 are guys, not a bad ratio I must say.   I’ve met a great group of people on my program as well as others, and the past few weeks have been nothing more than surreal.

I know my blog posts have been lagging so expect the next couple to still be catching up, then hopefully I will be writing as I go.  Here is one last picture to end my breif photo-tour of Prague:

Prague Castle

nodnoL

The title of my first, of hopefully many blog entries, is the city my European adventure begins. nodnoL (London backwards) would be, in my opinion, a more appropriate spelling for the city where everything else is backwards. If you have ever seen a British movie you probably already know that they drive on the opposite side of the street and sit in the opposite side of a car, but goes far beyond that. The doorknob to our hotel turned the opposite way  (much more annoying than it sounds), a push door is a pull door, bigger coins mean less money, and walking north always turned out to be south. Everything was counter-intuitive so getting around took time… which wasn’t really a problem since I only slept about 2 hours each night. Although when I went to see Wicked I pulled a Jerry Kaplan and slept through every minute of the show except for intermission when the lights were on. It’s actually amazing how much you can get done when you get up before noon. I saw many of London’s famous sites:

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Tower Bridge/Tower of London

The more I got lost in London the more I saw.  I found my favorite eating spot when I got off the at the wrong Underground (subway) stop.

Food market

I went to Parliament where I actually sat in on the question session, and saw Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was fascinating how informal it was. The members of parliament and the opposition sleep, talk amongst themselves, clap, laugh, stand and cheer throughout the entire meeting.

Since everything was opposite in London, I thought that maybe when passing someone on the sidewalk you would move left rather than right to avoiding running into them.  I was wrong.  After taking a few hits I realized that it works like this: the bigger person walks straight, the smaller person moves.

We were only in London 2 days then we were off to Munich. The city was completely destroyed in World War Two then rebuilt, so the buildings are relatively new with an older style of architecture.

Munich

That’s all I really have to say about Germany, other than that we were supposed to meet some people at a pub but went to the wrong place and got a bad deal on some table pretzels.

(The wrong) Augustina

I have been in Prague now for a week, and have plenty to write about, so hopefully I will get my next post up within the next few days.

P.S. For those of you planning to travel to London in the near future- If you have any trash, expect to carry it with you all around the city, garbage cans are impossible to find on the street.

P.P.S. It turns out this is because London has a long history of bombs being placed in the trash cans.