Preliminary Beer Rankings

1. Herold Special (5.8% Bronze Lager)
2. U Flecku
3. Pivovarsky Dum Dark Lager
4. Velkopopovicky Kozel Dark Lager
5. Pilsner Urquell (yes, it tastes different here. not so skunky)

Gee, I've Always Wanted To Learn About Tort Reform In A Fun And Safe Environment

I Am A Nerd

That much is clear. I registered and paid off my tuition yesterday afternoon, and Neville, my main man at ITTP, suggested we all met at 7pm at the class to introduce ourselves to our future classmates. 4 people showed up. We went to a cafe and had a beer, then decided to move along to a pub. I was elected to find one, since I had been in the city the longest. I led those folks through some winding streets, looking for an area I had been two the day previous that had three or four quiet pubs with decent beer.

Along the way, we stopped for a second while I asked everyone if they knew "what kind of birds those are up there".

They all responded no and look at me like I was a freak. Which I just might be.

They finally nixed the quiet pubs and someone else led us to an Irish Pub where a shitty band played a version of Canned Heat's "Let's Work Together". I stayed out quite late with those folks and in retrospect, I had a spectacularly bad time.

King Solomon's Reef Keeps Me Sane

And on the lighter side of Prague:

This is for those familiar with Olympia

Josefov

I've read quite a bit about the Jewish Quarter of Prague. It's located just north of Stare Mesto (the old town) and just across the river from Prague Castle. It's the only major tourist spot I've yet missed, so today I thought I'd take a gander. I've been avoiding paying large amounts of money for tourist admission, figuring that it would be much better to enter Prague Castle and such monuments in the winter when there are less tourists and I have more money, so I skipped the main sights and wandered around the district, checking out the sights and looking for a Belgian cafe I read about in my guide. The Belgian cafe turned out to be really damn expensive (It's known as Cafe Moule [as in mussels] and the Moule were aroundabouts $30...welcome to living inland), especially the Belgian beer, al of which I had previously tried, so I sat and drank a mediocre Czech beer.

So the Jewish Quarter, better known as a ghetto, was where Prague's large Jewish population was herded into over time. Originally known as a tolerant place for Jews to live, restrictions became tighter and tighter, combined with the occasional pogrom. In the 1890s, city leaders decided that the ghetto was a blight on the city, tore down manuy of the old buildings and scattered its residents throughout the city. The old medival townhouses were replaced by (at the time) modern Art Noveuau buildings.

After Chamberlain capitulated and the Nazis were handed the Sudentland and the rest of what is now the Czech Republic on a silver platter, the city's Jews, many who still lived in Josefov, were rounded up and placed in a new ghetto outside of the city in Terezin. Unlike other ghettos throughout Europe, Josefov was left intact. Hitler intended it to become "The Exotic Museum of an Extinct Race".

I expected Josefov to be creepy, a strange relic from the past. It was creepy, to be sure, but not so much for its past but for its present. Josefov is a chic shopping district now. The Art Noveau buildings are impressive, to say the least, and it is beautiful, but after reading about its history its more than a little hard to take. Jewish souvenier shops line the streets, people pay to see the old synagogues and the cemetary, then the go shopping at the United Colors of Beniton and have a coffee at an upscale French cafe. It puts American gentrification to shame, let me tell you.

Now seems as good at time as any to bring up a hard to stomach subject: Czech racism. They don't like the Romas at all here (otherwise known as gypsies). My roommates brother warned me about the "black people". Not much to say to that. Guidebooks and the people running my program have already warned me about this subject. It's definitely something that will be looking me in the face the entire time I'm here. And I'm not quit sure what to do about it.

Metro-natural

You know what's cool? Public transportation. At least if you're a nerd like me that takes pictures of archaeological digs. Prague has a real subway. Really! Living in Seattle so long, I forgot what it's like. Travel time from my front door to my class? 11 minutes. No, really. The walk would be ridiculous, I assure you. I'm on the other side of the river. Hradcanska station if you care to look at the map.

The other great thing about Prague's metro is that it's commie-built. Yep, and as you can see above, those commies weren't married to functionality, they had serious subway style. Check out those smart subway walls. Those are always in season.

Like DC, the metro is located well below ground to serve as a bomb shelter in case of a nuclear attack. Take that, Iran. An added bonus is the workout you get from running up the escalator. (Yes, I'm well aware of what an escalator does, but who has time to stand and wait for a machine to do it for me). I'm sure you're all waiting breathlessly for my return so you can stare at my supple calves in a pair of hot European soccer shorts. So I'll leave you with that image.

Deutschland Uber Alles

As we all well know, the Europeans are years ahead of us in football. Not only do they have crazier fans, stupider costumes at big games, and cooler uniforms, not only are scarves clearly more stylish than baseball hats, now they've brought out the big guns. They set up giant screens in the main public squares and show the games to big crowds of drunk idiots. How can we possibly compete with 800 year old public squares, public intoxication and a drunken crowd mentality? Is Seattle supposed to set up a screen next to the Space Needle? Could San Francisco set up a 100 foot tall HD screen at Fisherman's Wharf, feed beer to a bunch of sea lions and let them loose on a crowd of 49ers fans? I mean, we all want to see that, but is it really possible?

I'm afraid we're screwed, America. Our mighty empire is teetering, and unless we can find something to compete with this kind of tomfoolery, our days are numbered.

U Fleku? No, U Fleck-You!

I had my first beer in Prague at a place called U Flecku

They've been brewing this beer in this spot since 1499. It was definitely a little touristy (a mustachioed man played an accordion and posed for pictures) but the beer was delicious and dark.
After a waiter brought around a mug for me, another came by with a tray full of shots, gestured in my direction and said a few words in Czech, none of which I understood. Fortunately, I had my arsenal of about 3 words ready. "Neh" I said, and shook my head. Again he waved his tray of shots at me, indicating that I should take one and spoke a few more words of Czech.

Time for me to break out the big guns. I said "Prosim, neh!" which more or less means "Please, no". No dice. The man waved his tray of shots in my face and said "Is traditional Czech aperitif!"
I really had no choice. I sipped it down and finished my beer. Still have no idea what it was, but it tasted like Jaeger, only good. And a little bitter. Apparently it's never a good idea to turn down a traditional Czech aperitif.

I'm Bear-ly Keeping Myself From Going To This Museum

Aw, ain't he adorable? Now all we need is a Marxist Gorilla.

Zing!

Oh, I Will Be Going Here

And if they actually sell a nesting doll with fangs somebody will be getting a sweet present.

Czech-ing In

Thoughts from my flight and the first couple of days here

--Air France has great champagne on their flights. The crew refuses to speak English, although they were familiar with the language (and 3/4 of the flight was American). I respect that, so a champagne toast to refusing to compromise to the American cultural machine.

--Prague is much more eastern european than I had expected. Lots of smoking, pretty dirty outside of the old town, etc. My hotel room is a closet and the internet is down, but I do get a lot of German tv. Saw the Family Guy dubbed into German before I left. Still pretty funny.

--After czech-ing into my hotel and wandering around a bit, I stumbled onto the old town and the Charles Bridge. Fantastic. Can't say enough good things about it. Pictures will follow. Previously, my reaction to living here for a year was abject fear, but after seeing the bridge and the old town I assure you I will enjoy living here.

--Been here for almost 20 hours and still haven't sat down in one of the many cafes or pubs for a beer. This will shock most of you, I'm sure. I've been too tired to deal with interacting with anyone in my non-existant guidebook czech.

--Eurocup tonight! There's a giant screen in old town square for people to gather, drink in the streets and watch the games. Open container law goes into effect after the championship!