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The days in Prague seem like they go much quicker then in Burnaby, its been a month so far, and I really feel like I haven’t been here for more then two weeks. But maybe that’s because the vodka helps me forget half of it, clearly I need to blog more so I can have the capacity to forget. To sum it up, I’ve done a lot of things, met a bunch of people, and its been a blast.

Crew from Suit 220, minus me

For the last two weeks, we did a course called “Czech Intensive”, which is basically a two week intensive course for five hours a week, focusing only on the basics of the Czech language. It was cool, our teacher was awesome and she definitely made it really easy (easy enough for me to get an A without studying). I’ve been up to a lot of things, booking trips, learning how to be the greatest cook ever using just a stove, and of course, drinking gallons of pivo.

When it comes to what I do after the bell rings, its whole different story. The night life in Prague is pretty incredible, most clubs are open till around 6am, which is the time I regularly went to sleep when the American exchange students got here. Life for that week consisted of a week I’d like to remember, but due to alcohol, I’ll most likely forget. So far, I’ve been to a bunch of bars and clubs, but I’ll talk about my favorites. One of my favorites, and the first club I went to, was Mecca. It has two floors, one that is strictly electronica, and the other one is old school music from the 80s and 90s.

Upper floor of Mecca, taken in the first week of Prague

Another one that I think is pretty decent is Karlovy Lazny, its basically a five story club that plays hip hop, 90s, trance, electronica, and something else that I can’t seem to remember. Each floor plays pretty decent music, and I like the variety, plus the best part of it is that if there are people you feel like avoiding, you can run away to a different floor. I went to a battle of bands type of event at a club called Akropolis, and it was a Czech filled club, it was quite different from a club filled with 20 year old Americans. Oh, and probably my favorite club so far, is Chapeau Rouge, it has great music, a fun dancefloor, and tons of cool people. What I love about the nightlife here is that there are always trams running, there are night ones that come less frequently, but if I’m out clubbing, I’m generally out past 5, which is when the day tram and Metro resume.

The wall of one of the metros in Prague, Hora has a ton of pics of it, click here to see his pictures on flickr!

One of the things that Vancouver lacks is a place to go and eat after your finished after a night of drinking, dancing, or just a midnight snack. Sure, there is Dennys, McDonalds, or Burger King, but these places are driving trips away, and I have taken many trips to these places during the night when I haven’t been drinking (for example, staying up with friends watching 24), but when I’m slightly intoxicated, the general consensus is that driving is a bad idea, and thus, its very hard to find a midnight snack. What Vancouver needs is more night time stands:

These amazing stands are open 24/7, and are always there to satisfy my love affair with shmazny syr (fried cheese sandwich).

So, what else have I been up to besides destroying my liver? Well, one of my favorite things I’ve done here is cook. I’ve enjoyed cooking immensely, I get new recipes from my Mom every so often so I can try new things. Six months ago, the most I could do was make a bowl of Chef Boyardee, but since all we don’t have a microwave, or even an oven, I’ve resorted to learning how to cook as many things as I can with a hotplate. So far, its been pretty successful. I can make some pretty solid perogies, grilled cheese, pasta (learned how to make alfredo sauce, its amazing, with mushrooms and pees as well, damn..), and eggs. Okay, so maybe that’s not a lot of things, but I can definitely live off that, that’s for sure.

Hora and I have gone to a couple hockey games, one to watch the Czech National team, where they succumbed to a defeat by the Fins, and another to watch AC Slavia play another team from the Czech Republic, where they suffered a defeat of 7-1. I would like to go to a game where the team I’m cheering for would win, but it was still an amazing experience. The O2 area has fans that are twice as loud and twice as dedicated then I’ve ever seen it in a regular season game in GM place, it was a sight to see.

The fan section, where everyone followed along with every chant, cheer, and there were even some drummers.

Another big factor of this trip has always been to travel to various parts of Europe, and finally after a month, Hora, I, and a couple other exchange students decided to finally make it happen. We’ve booked trips to Budapest, Amsterdam, Vienna, Copenhagen, and finally, Istanbul. I want to go to Germany as well, but after spending all this money on these trips, I honestly don’t know if I’ll have the money. I need to have some money saved before I start travelling in the summer! If anyone has any recommendations for what to do in these cities, feel free to comment!

Hora and I went to Swan Lake, which is one of the most popular ballets in Prague. He read the story during the intermission, I failed to do so and thus I had no idea what was going on the entire time, although it was pretty cool. If you want to read up on it, check out Horas blog.

Before going to the Czech Republic, I always wondered what this trip would be like, and the biggest thing I was curious about is how I would handle myself if I had to live on my own. So far, I’ve been successful at eating (although I miss my moms cooking, shes so much better then me its ridiculous), I have been a huge failure at doing the laundry, because I ruined my favorite shirt, it was the jersey from when Italy won the World Cup in 2006, still pissed of about that. Prague is an amazing city, there is always things to do, things to see, cheap food, efficient tram system. Vancouver could definitely take a couple pointers from this city (but it could also be said the other way around).

I’m going to see the Charles Castle some time soon, I plan to write about that, its the biggest castle in the world, I’m pretty stoked. Until then, Nasdravi!