September's Adventures

Sorry- this was supposed to be posted on Sept 25:
I've had a busy few weeks so here are the major highlights: Karlstejn, Telc, Serbian concert, Slumdog, Karlovo Lazne, and then Melnik.

I went to Karlstejn (pronounced Karlstein) a few weekends ago with my friend Maria from the Celta course. Karlstejn is only about 30 minutes away from Prague. Since I had the Prague metro pass, it came out to only 56 crowns which is about 3 dollars- woo hoo! Really cheap! Karlstejn is a very small tourist town. The main streets or I should say street has many houses and tourist shops to filter though. The main attraction is the big castle at the top of the hill overlooking the whole town-- which as you can see is quite small.
Karlstejn was nice.. it was really beautiful, and just a nice relaxing day out of the city. It's worth taking a day trip too since its so cheap, but unfortunately to go inside the castle its 200 crowns which was not worth it for us.. we just decided to admire the outside. I got a little crazy and trespassed to take a picture so here's a picture of me running pass the trespass sign.. hahah oops



















We then decided to go to a city called Telc (pronounced Telch) the next night with Joanna my new roommate. Telc is a charming little town about 3-4 hours south of Prague. Telc is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so it really has become a tourist town. Telc is in Moravia and Prague is in Bohemia. It is actually really close to Austria and you can see the German-Austrian influence in the city and the people. We got there when it was dark and hadn't booked a place to stay yet. We were informed that all the places were booked except the Pension Patricia. There was no front desk to walk into, instead there was a buzzer and an intercom. We rang, and did not hear much. We waited and waited, and then out of nowhere a woman popped outside her second door window to look down on us to see what we wanted. It was like out of a movie set in medieval times haha.. classic. She showed us an apartment which was fantastic: living room, bedroom, 2 big beds and a couch, kitchen, and bathroom! AND it was cheaper than one of the hotels down the street that only had one bed! So we brought down the price just a bit anyways.. and booked it. Patricia is such a nice old woman. Very sweet and told us all the things to do and for us to take our time when we wanted to leave. Aww really nice!

Telc has a gorgeous town square and a river all around it, almost making it into an island somewhat. Walking along the small bridge across the river was so nice. The streets were very small and just charming. The main square looks like a cutout from an old western. All of the facades of the buildings are so decorative with different bright colors and wonderful artwork. It just looked like if you touched it, then the whole set would fall over. Really amazing though! Inside the church a group of young men were playing brass instruments so that was really nice, and then we went inside the castle walls into the mosseleum and were greeted with more music this time- air instruments including the recorder! I haven't see one of those since elementary school! They were all dressed up in medieval costumes. The mosseleum was gorgeous and the cage around the bodies was very ornate. The ceiling was 3D, where the cherubs were playing horns, the horns actually came out of the ceiling.. as well as this cross with Jesus held out by I'm assuming God.















We were wondering if they always have music playing in these places, and then we went into the courtyard and discovered many people dressed up in old clothes and different activities for tourists to be entertained with. We asked if it is always like this, but they said it was UNESCO heritage day, so it was a special day to visit.. Lucky us!
The castle is not really amazing to look at from the outside.. but the tour inside was only about 100 crowns so we decided to go. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the rooms, but of course.. I'm a sneaky little gal and took the flash off the camera and when the guide wasn't looking I would try to snap away. Unfortunately she was always in the room and wouldn't let us just roam around for a bit so all my pics were taken quickly so ended up blurry. grr

The one room, actually two rooms that really struck me were the African room and the Blue room. The old inhabitants there were great lovers of hunting, so the African room was this long hallway type room, that was just covered (every inch) with animal heads, and skins, and had this crocodile sprawled against the walls. It had a giant elephant tusk displayed on one end as well as the an elephant ear!! wtf! It was insane walking through that room.. just glancing at it.. I was speechless by the intensity of all those animals!

The other room was this beautiful blue room that was soo rich in this intense blue color. It had a waffle ceiling with pictures portraying poseidon, zeus, and hercules was in almost every room because of his adventures killing different beasts.

This one room with the knight armor had a waffle ceiling as well and each square displayed Hercules killing a different beast during his adventures.

Then we went up the bell tower after lunch, which had the smallest doorway and the tiniest winding stairway.. it was intense how cramped it was walking up the steps. Half of my foot barely fit on each step. But we made it to the top and saw a great view of the city! What a charming place. Definitely a good day trip.. since it takes so long to get there just spending one night is sufficient to take in the beauty of the town. There's not much else to do.



When we were back in Prague, my roommate's boyfriend told us about a concert that was being held in old town square that was free. It was Serbian music. I had no idea what the meant, or what to expect, but a concert that was free.. I was down to go! It was awesome! The music was really fun and lively (even though we learned that all the songs are either funeral songs or wedding songs.. weird) The crowd knew the words and were singing along. It was just awesome to see this huge concert set built in the middle of the square: Old with the New.. Amazing!


The next night was Friday night and I was meeting some friends at a bar. Long story short, weirdest night of my life: Got propositioned by a 50 year old man, got very lewd comments thrown at me by an asshole walking towards me, but then RAN INTO SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE ACTORS! It was nuts.. I was walking along one of the small alleys to get to the astrological clock, and I was walking past them and all I thought was "Oh look, some indians" but then this other guy stopped them and said something about slumdog.. and i turned around and I was like ohhh shit! I was up next to them and wait my turn to speak with them.. but this guy was taking such a damn long time! He took a picture with them but made them move into a place that had better light. They took his picture and then started walking away.. aww I was too chickenshit to stop them again! uggh just sucks.. I tried to be paparazzi cuz they were smooching under the clock and he twirled her.. but all my pics came out black. gosh there goes my career as a paparazzi!

Oh well.. we ended up going to Karlovo Lazne that night which is the largest club in Europe. It is 5 stories with each one with a completely different theme and music. That was good fun going out with Fran (my old roommate) and her friends from her school. She has all these fun young people to go out with.. while my coworkers are all older and married.. grr! But we had a great time.. and didn't get home until 530 in the morning. So worth the 170 crown-- I just need to try to pre party at home cuz I can't seem to get drunk at these clubs!

Then last saturday we decided to go to Melnik which is a small town just 30 km north of Prague. They had their annual wine festival that weekend- Sept 18-20. The wine that is famous here is called Burcak (pronounced Burchak). This wine is not really wine like you would see anywhere else. Burcak means young wine-- so basically this stuff is half fermented, and when you drink it, it continues to ferment in your stomach! Sick right? This stuff may sound disgusting, and it even doesn't look that appetizing because it's so cloudy, but drinking it is just like juice. It's sweet and tangy. They have a red version too, which I find to be tastier. I could've drunken this stuff all day, and I would have if I hadn't felt so terrible from going out to the club the night before. haha The whole town was just like this big carnival that costs 200 crown just to get in. There are rides and games and activities, and lots of weird things to buy including: candy penis-- which later on we saw someone actually sucking on it.. icck!





Melnik also has a castle, and we took a tour inside of it for like 100 crowns or something like that. The nice thing about this tour was that it wasn't guided, so we could roam about in each room and take our sweet ass time. Of course you couldn't take pictures inside, and there were actually cameras mounted up to catch people who did take pics.. but of course.. that didn't stop me! Best part was being in the church.. Oz- Stephanie's Turkish boyfriend looked at this painting of Jesus and exclaimed: "Look, it's Chinese Jesus!" hahahah oh man.. see for yourself, I do think he looks quite Chinese in this haha

That was my exciting 2-3 weeks. Now this weekend I'm going to Munich for Oktoberfest so that should prove to be great fun as well!

Weird Art of Prague

When you visit Prague, there are of course many beautiful buildings, cathedrals, and of course castles that tickle your aesthetic senses. This page is not dedicated to that.

I take a moment to dedicate this page to the weird art of Prague- mostly attributed to the controversial work of David Černý.



First on the list: Statue of St. Wenceslas riding a dead horse- upside down.

The first night we decided to go out to a club- Lucerna- we passed through a hall and discovered this. We had no idea that it was a famous piece of art. We had no clue what to really make of it. It's just in the middle of this hallway by Wenceslas Square- on the way to Club Lucerna. Only later did we realize that it was actually the work of David Cerny who plagues the rest of Prague with his work.

On the other side of the river- not using the Charles Bridge- but the smaller bridge just south of it, you will find this memorial to the victims of communism.







Really interesting pieces, where each step, the man is becoming more whole. The first step started with just a single foot.





















At this moment, Fran and I contemplated why statues are always made of men. Therefore, I stepped in and became the next piece of the forwardism.
















Then of course there are the peeing statues. Soo strange these pieces are. In the states, these would never be allowed.. but of course, after viewing these, I realized that anything is allowed in the Prague.


They are soo perverse. Two men facing each other in a pool/fountain in a courtyard outside the Kafka museum. The butts actually rotate and as they rotate, the penis goes up and down- peeing the whole time. Very disturbing.

Here is Rosie and Janette being a little naughty with the statues.



And finally the last, but most likely the most famous of David Cerny's pieces is the Baby Tower. It is a television tower by the Jiriho z Podebrad station, where you can approach the massive tower. Anywhere in the city you can see this tower. And from afar, it does not appear to be anything more special than what it is.

However, when approaching it, you can see it is actually quite disturbing. There are babies crawling up the tower.













Well if that is not unusual enough, then when looking closely upon those babies, you see that their faces are-- imploded! It brings about a very disturbing site.































Then there are these locks of love everywhere: uuggh sickening lol





The John Lennon wall is a really famous piece to see as well. Prague is very hippy-ish. This wall suits it very well.