Prague is a Party

7/12-13 Left early from Estes Park to Denver. Flew to toronto where I had an 11 hour layover. Found a quiet place in the airport to lie down and I slept and read. Thankfully I had some leftover pasta from the Dunraven going away dinner and some very very tasty deserts thanks to Lisa Foster! Then had a flight to Frankfurt where I just had a 3 or 4 hour layover before flying on to prague. Martin, who I met in indonesia climbing volcanoes, picked me up at the airport and drove me through prague to get a quick peek. It was about 5pm Prague time. We arrived at his flat on the outskirts of prague where he proceeded to hand me his favorite czech beer pilsner urquell. This would be the first of many times of Martin handing me beers...that night..and this week. He had planned a bbq for my arrival party with his sister annetta, his roommate jitka, and about 10 other friends (2 other martins, mark, joseph, peter, roman, tsuzank...most gave me their international english names). He grilled ups some brats and pork and we had quite a feast. And of course there was plenty of beer and wine to go around. Martin had said that his friends would be shy until they had some beer and then they would start with their english. This was true. They were all very nice and would talk to me in english when talking directly to me, but then talk in czech when talking in general, but by the end of the night it was english being spoken exclusively. It was interesting b/c several of his friends had been living in the US for work or school at some point. One gal had gone to high school in Idaho for a year, in a place where her nearest neighbors were 15 minutes away. She thought this was so crazy. Another guy was an exchange student in chicago and luck of the draw had it that his host family was the kellogs (of the kellog cereal company), so they had a 15 million dollar mansion in steamboat springs that he was often flown to on their private jet for ski weekends! Not bad! He was also a big libertarian and loved glenn beck. I think the first euro like that I had ever met. But had quite a fun time with all of them and learned a lot about czech rep. They were all so curious about what I thought about it already and were all really hoping that I already liked it and that the people were friendly. So far, so good. They were all excited to hear about my travels. Several of them had travelled through se asia as well and also to India and Nepal so it was exciting to hear about the future places I would be. One of the things they thought was most unique about America was how hard we worked. They all work only 7 hours per day, 5 days a week, and they get a minimum starting vacation of 40 days, plus 10 sick days. And in czech, a sick day doesn't necessarily mean you have the flu, it means you partied too hard the night before and need a day of relaxing. that's pretty sweet. Martin works for DHL, his sister for Ford, and Jitka for ING bank. We partied until about 2 or 3am and then the whole crowd all headed for the metro to go home.

7/14 Woke up early as Martin was going off to work. I took the metro into central prague and explored around it. Had some tasty, tasty bread at a couple places. European bread is always so tasty! Prague is a GORGEOUS city along the vltava river with very old buildings and all red roofs. I explored the big national monument, went to a couple giant cathedrals. Went into the old town with its narrow winding streets and large open plazas with cool buildings. In the old town square there is a cool clock that has a little show everytime the hour chimes. Climbed to the top of the clock tower there for a view of prague. Had a very tasty brat on the streets. I then walked across the charles bridge, a very famous old stone bridge with statues on it, to the other side of the vltava. From here I walked up to the Prague Castle and explored its grounds and some of its gardens and enjoyed the sweet view back down to old prague and the river and all of prague's cool bridges. Entered into the castle square and climbed the giant steeple of the giant cathedral inside the castle grounds for an even better view of prague. From there you could look out everywhere, and you could even see the huge American embassy from there. Quite a fancy embassy with an orchard, a lookout tower and then the building with the big american flag flying. I thought that was kind of interesting. From there I took some back streets up to the top of this hill with a park and trees and all that. They have a mini type eiffel tower there (can't remember the name) Hung out at the park for a bit doing some reading and watching the sun set over prague from the top of the hill. After this I walked some more through the park and eventually down to the national theatre where I was meeting martin and his sister. I really enjoyed exploring around prague b/c it really is an incredibly scenic city with an old feel, yet fresh and clean. Martin took me to some restaurant/pub where we met another whole crowd of friends (of which I can only remember the name of Frantisek b/c they all gave me their czech names and I would have quite a bit of alcohol). Martin ordered some traditional czech dumplings with cheese inside for me and we quickly drank 4 or 5 beers b/c we were so hot. It was about 35 degrees there that day (95 or so) and they don't have air con b/c it is very unusual, so we were all sweating a lot. After dinner we just hung out at the restaurant...and the beers kept coming. I'd be 3/4 through my beer, and then all of a sudden another huge beer would show up. And these are big beers...and quite tasty i might add. Then they were all buying me their favorite czech shots, and all quite strong for sure. The czechs were quite the partiers. We finally had had enough of the restaurant and went to stroll along the river. And all of a sudden we all found ourselves with a bottle of wine in hand. I have no idea how that happened. We did some more wandering around the streets with our wine, but the rest of it is kind of a blur. But somehow we made it back to Martin's flat for some sleep so we could do it all again the next day. The czechs are so generous and hospitable (and later I would find the hungarians to be the same) and always buying drinks. When I would finally get a chance to buy a round, I was very surprised to find that drinks here are quite cheap. A very pleasant surprise compared to western europe. About 1.5 to 2 bucks for a big beer and a pub and 1 to 1.5 in a grocery store. Food also isn't too bad. traditional czech food for 5 bucks or street food like brats for 1-2 bucks.

7/15 Up early again with Martin as he worked again of course. Explored some more of prague. Visited this weird and tall famous building of prague and explored around a park. Did some more reading in the park. That evening I met martin on the other side of the river (and Tsuzanka and Jitka) for dinner at one of their favorite local places. Had a traditional meal (duck, pork, and beef with a side of dumplings). Of course there was plenty of czech beer to wash it all down with. After we were feeling quite good we explored the city and the prague castle a bit at night before taking the metro home late that night.

I really had a fun time in Prague. Such a great city and Martin was such a great host and his friends so nice as well. They really took care of me