An Entirely Productive Week

.....somewhat.

Despite my lack of photos and posts I have managed to find a number of great new bars and restaurants!!  On Tuesday, a few friends all finished our teaching day around 10AM, so we decided to meet up for lunch in the city center.  One of my friends knew of an awesome brewery with a great lunch special, so we decided to try it out.  The restaurant lunch special runs from 11AM to 2PM on weekdays only, and I'm soooo happy we went!! The food was FANTASTIC, all traditional Czech meals and an entirely Czech menu.  Between the three of us, we knew about 10 or 15 scattered words on the menu (who am I kidding, I was no help...), so it was quite the adventure!  I had a delicious Svichkova (braised beef in a thick gravy with cranberry chutney and whipped cream on top served with bread dumplings, absolutely AMAZING and extremely heavy, following the Czech culinary tradition!) and a number of 19 crown beers!  Definitely the cheapest beer I've found in Prague until....

A group of us went out to this TINY bar (seriously.  it seats about 20 people and you have to go up this impossibly narrow and steep staircase to get there) called....... drumroll please..... The Big Lebowski!!! For those of you who know me, you know how big a deal this was to me!  Once you got upstairs, there actually wasn't much that was Lebowski themed besides the menu and the sign at the entrance, but it was awesome!  It is one of the few smoke-free bars I know of in Prague, and the lack of stale cigarette smoke in the air was quite refreshing!  But the coolest part about this bar is that you decide how much you want to pay.  No joke.  There are no prices on the menu, and you pay the bartender at the end of the night however much you think you should.  I can imagine the confused look on my friends faces hearing about this, how would this work you say?  To put it bluntly, people are far more socially conscious here than they are back home.  People still pay about 20 crowns a beer (still cheaper than most establishments) and don't try to get away paying 1 or 2 crowns, because that's simply not done.  I can't really explain it, but it works.  And it's awesome.

Saturday I was planning on watching the "football" (no matter how long I live in Europe, it will always be strange for me to call soccer football) match between Man U and Liverpool at this Irish Cuban Bar called O'Che's (I still have no idea what an Irish-Cuban bar is, or how it works, its for sure on the list of things-to-do before it gets too cold!) but it was an absolutely STUNNING day and I couldn't stand the thought of spending it inside in a smoky pub watching a game I didn't really care about.  So instead...

A friend and I went to a beautiful National Park called Divoka Sarka and went hiking for a few hours!  It was absolutely amazing!  Coming from Florida, it is still strange for me to see hills and mountains everywhere, and the views were AMAZING!!  You could look one way and see all of Prague laid out beneath you, but if you turned around all you saw was hillside and rock faces and other hikers enjoying the sunshine.  Sadly I forgot to bring my camera, but I've found some pictures online graciously posted by more prepared hikers than myself so you can get an idea...

And, because it is Prague after all, I wasn't even that surprised to find a pub in the middle of nowhere after an hour or two of hiking around.  Not being one to miss out on a cultural experience, I stopped in for a pint or two before taking the tram back home :)

That about does it for this week, more to come soon.

Last Week

was crazy busy!!! I've been getting a lot of new classes in elementary schools, so I'm finally beginning to feel like more of a legit teacher than a glorified pre-school/kindy nanny!  School and work have been keeping me really busy, but I'd be a liar if I said that was all that has me busy....

I've continued to explore around my new neighborhood, and I've had some awesome finds!!  I discovered an AMAZING bakery that is conveniently located across the street from my morning tram stop.  I first went in about a week ago, and by now they already know what I want when I show up 4 days a week at 7 am! :D

I've also been busy stocking up on the last of the season's Burchak, a Czech summer wine that's still in the process of fermenting. It's delicious!  Fairly sweet, slightly carbonated, and the alcohol content varies drastically batch to batch and day to day.  They sell it by the glass or in these huge 2 L plastic bottles to take home.  According to my Czech friends, if you let burchak sit in the plastic 2 L bottle for a few days it will explode because it is still fermenting?  I'm not sure, none has ever stayed in the bottle that long.

I've also been busy ignoring all my friends and roommates who have been telling me that last Thursday was going to be the last warm day in Prague for six months.  I told them it was impossible to change from shorts and light-sweater weather to full on layers overnight.... and I was wrong.  Luckily we fit in another trip to the beer gardens before the cold set in...

Sunset at the beer garden

We also went to a light show they do every saturday in the summer on the Astronomical clock tower in Old Town square.  It was awesome!!  It is a 10 minute light show detailing the history of the Czech republic as seen on this hundreds-year-old clock tower!  Very cool.  I didn't take this video, and the show I saw was slightly different, but you get the idea :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjWJHEmFfPA

The weekend has been the usual, out "lesson planning" at bars with my coworkers.  Friday night we went to a group favorite that is in a cave.  The top floor is a wine tasting bar (where I first discovered burchak) that looks all classy and like my friends and I don't belong.... Then you wind your way around to the back, and there is an ominous twisting staircase leading you down into a cave (the former wine cellar of the above wine bar).  You end up in a really cool underground bar with as many foosball tables as actual tables (foosball is HUGE in Prague, every bar has a few, most of the schools I teach at have them in game rooms.  They take this ish seriously.  and they dont appreciate untalented individuals spinning their little guys, FYI) It was pretty fun, but after a few hours in an underground bar with no ventilation and smokers galore, it got to be a bit much and we headed out.

Saturday I went to an art exhibition called After Velvet at the Golden Ring in Old Town.  It was incredible!! The show was focused on Czech art created after the Velvet Revolution (1989.  if you don't know of it, google it.  It's an amazing story)  The exhibition was fantastic,  extremely well organized and well thought out. It incorporated artwork of all different media; paintings (on canvas, some directly on the museum walls), photos, sculptures, video installations, and the first performance piece I have ever seen.  Very cool.  We definitively spent about four hours wandering the halls :) Then I stepped outside to an amazing view of Tyn Church

Tyn, Old Town, Prague

Then we all went to a great dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, bar hopping for a few hours, then I had an awesome nighttime photo-shoot on my way home :)

The National Theater in Prague  

Detail of the National Theater (I really like this building...)

Creepy moon and awesome building

St. Wenceslas Church in my neighborhood

That's all for now!  Till next time, faithful followers :)