Oktoberfest

It's October 15th and the first snow just fell in Prague. I'm not prepared! Just a few weeks ago on September 26th my friends and I were in Munich for Oktoberfest and it was MUCH better weather!




This was a last minute trip.. the planning was half assed and up til the last minute. It ended up just being Fran, Stephanie, and I- the original CELTA girls.. the first ones to hang out with each other in Prague before the course started. Oktoberfest lasts for 3 weeks.. ending the first week of October. We decided to go for the second week, as there was a Czech holiday on Monday the 28th of Sept which allowed us to have a recovery day from the mayhem to be expected. We had no place to stay, as all of the hostels were either booked or ridiculously expensive, so we decided to just plan a saturday-sunday trip that wouldn't require us to plan for a place to stay. We would party all day and all night if we had to. Plus.. we're 3 girls-- therefore, really easy to find a place to crash if necessary.

We arrived in Munich Saturday afternoon-- unfortunately all the earlier buses were full by the time we officially decided to go. It was a 5 hour ride on student agency.. which was only about 29 euros where we got comfortable seats with a movie to watch and free hot drinks! yumm we watched Lord of War which was really uncomfortable to watch on a bus.. not exactly the type of movie I was expecting. I've seen it before and warned Fran that is was quite disturbing.. but I actually enjoyed it the second time watching it. I drank hot cocoa too.. delicious!

My friend Lissa from Phoenix moved out to Germany a couple of months ago. She is half German and half Brazilian. We used to work at the dubliner together in phoenix.. and she was the one who really convinced me that I should move out here.. thank god I listened to her! She lives an hour outside of Munich so we met up with her for lunch as soon as we arrived. Her friends are not really into Oktoberfest-- it seems the locals don't care for it as much. The whole city just seemed soo alive. I loved it!

After lunch we decided we waited long enough to head to the fairgrounds.. we didn't know the way.. but everyone assured us to just follow the crowds of people- mostly the traditionally dressed up folk and we would find the way. And that's exactly what we did! A pretty long walk later and there we were.. in front of the biggest "fair" I had ever seen! It looked like a carnival on crack! Huge rides, lots of lights, massive slides.. that's where we got stuck watching first. This huge slide had this conveyor belt that allowed thrill takers to get to the top of the slide. That was the most entertaining thing about it.. because people really needed help maintaining balance on the belt since it went so fast! People were falling and stumbling trying to surf up the belt.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the great free entertainment and managed to roam around the park and get our bearings. OUR GOAL: Obtain Beer. This mission should seem to be really easy, considring Oktoberfest which has almost 7 million liters of beer on hand! However, we quickly learned that the main places to get the beer were inside of the tents which was impossible to get into since we didn't have reservations nor did we get there early enough to wait in line.

We remembered seeing a bar at the entrance of the park next to the slide area and decided to set up tent in there. The place was packed, but we finally got our first toast- Na zdravi as they say in Czech! But Prost in German! Ahh it was delicious- GERMAN EFFICIENCY! We stayed in that "bar" all day pretty much and met tons of ridiculously drunk men! Fran accomplished her goal of the evening and received a hat from one of the guys she was talking to. (Unfortunatley she lost it later in the evening) I received a burger king crown hahaha.. I have no idea why this guy gave it to me.. or why he had it in the first place but, hell I was queen for a while.

Fran was not about to be torn away from these guys and the massive amounts of beer they were supplying her with. They even offered their hotel room to us to crash if we needed-- surprise surprise there. Stephanie and I were getting more and more excited about the rides since there were some "german efficient" ones all around the park. We tried to convince Fran to come with us but she was adamant on staying off the rides, since she was so drunk and afraid she was going to get sick. So we made her promise not to leave the bar and we would be right back after a few rides. Boy.. that didn't happen!

Steph and I rode some awesome twisty turny, high upside rides. I had a missed call from Fran, so we decided to go back. She wasn't there of course! We wandered around and ran into the guys that we left in charge of her and they said that they had to leave and Fran just started walking off anyway. So we continued to try and call and wandered about until miraculously we ran into again with the massive hoards of people! Thank god! Let's continue drinking!

We finally were able to get Fran to do the swing ride which actually goes quite high. Beautiful views of the park though!






There was a carousel bar! Genius! As you can tell from the video.. my voice was shot!

Met some grabby Italians they were nice at first.. but.. gosh grabby and Italian just go hand-in-hand. You can see Fran clinging to Stephanie for dear life! And this is the A-hole that stole Fran's hat! Awww.. she was soo sad!

We met this great guy Jani who let us stay at his place. Our original plan was to just keep partying all night and just try to make it through the weekend by maybe sleeping at the train station. Which we did pass by to get some beer and we saw MANY people share this idea- there were people camped out on the stairs and in the hallways. Crazy.. but Jani saved us and refused to let us be one of those people. He was from Finland and he just moved out to Munich that weekend actually. He let Spanish guys sleep at his place the night before.. so we knew that he was no a creepo. So out of the 3 nights he was in Munich- 2 of them he slept on his couch... aww poor thing! But again.. we thank him for his hospitality. His roommates must've thought he was a pimp since they found 3 girls in his room the next day! haha

Since we didn't get to go into the tents the night before, we decided that we had to go back to the fairgrounds and get into a tent just for the mere sake of taking pictures. You can't go to Oktoberfest and NOT get into a tent! That's just ridiculous. Our original plan was to go to the tent.. take pictures.. have A beer.. and then go out and see the rest of Munich before we had to be back at the train station around 4. yea.. once we entered the beer tent.. it was all over. Amazing to think that these tents are temporary and they take so long to build for just 3 weeks and then its gone!
We went to Hofbrau House and the mayhem began. It was 11 am and I had my first beer of the day and I wasn't about to stop right there. People were just sooo happy!! Singing songs.. drinking beer.. chanting different German sayings! I really should've looked up the words the day before we left.. cuz it would've been nice to chant along with all of them.. but we did pick up.. kinda. Heyy Baby! Oooh! Ahhh! I want to knooow.. if you'll be my girl! Ohh Ahh! hahaha

They play this other specific song about every 10 minutes.. and that's everyone's cue to cheers each other.. gosh I have never Cheered that many people before.. dang and those beer steins are freakin heavy!! I was holding it up with 2 hands by the end of the night! I've truly never had that much fun in my life and I soo wish I could've been there all day! I'm sad we didn't go there Saturday- that would have been crazy... but we were at least able to get in Sunday! That was the greatest! I will definitely go again.. and next time.. I hope to bring my bestest friends ever-- Seth, Ash, Tyson, B-yann, Bex!

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.