Plzeňský Prazdroj ("the Fountainhead of Pilsner"): Home of Pilsner Urquell

Here's a fun fact for you: The Czech Republic drinks about 160 litres of beer per capita a year! That’s about 300 pints per person and makes them the top beer consumer in the world. We woke up early to go to Plzn, a Bohemian city known as the birthplace of the Pilsner beer style in general, and for Pilsner Urquell, since 1898. Factory tours are awesome!

Ashley (Team Vacation!) and Sara (Team Vacation from Work!) on the metro, enroute.

We were tired, but embarked on an early Student Agency bus bound for Plzn. Field trip!

Town of Plzn. This restaurant does not like communism. Jess agrees.

I'm not quite sure what Miriam was demonstrating here in the restaurant. Probably something awesome. Or an elephant. With a hat.

This dude was in the waiting area at the brewery. At first I was skeptical.

But then I ate his sausage. Oops.

Sara made a fortune teller middle school style.

OMG Sara and Jess are so excited to be on the beer bus!

So many bottles, so much beer! It smelled like a house party X 1000!

Beer is made in there!

We rode the biggest elevator in continental Europe (I think?)! Did I mention Kt came to visit me from America? Because she did.

There was lots of barley. I put it in my mouth, but it didn't taste as good as when it's in beer form.

People feeders! It fed us ground hops.

Non-ground hops! I also put these in my mouth, but I think it was a bad decision. Also much better in beer form.

We went to the cellars were old style wooden barrels of beer were fermenting.

Our tour guide! And the beer! Ready for our mouths!

Barrels!

Go Team Pivo! We got to drink special unfiltered, unpasturized beer as part of the tour. We were definitely the most enthusiastic people on the group. Yay everyone! Yay beer!

To Olomouc we go!

On November 28th, Jess and I were supposed to go to Český Krumlov, but there was only one bus ticket left between the two of us, so we didn't. Since we'd both stayed up the entire night without sleeping, Jess for her radio show and me for no good reason (except maybe those espressos with rum in them from Ouky Douky) we decided we NEEDED an adventure lest our cracked out sleep-deprived turmoil be for naught. Rick Steves told us to go to Olomouc, about 3 hours away, so at the ripe hour of 8:30am we did just that. Here is our day in photos:

We got on a train. We were excited.

But it was a special train and we were supposed to have made reservations. Oops. So the conductor made us pay more money. Fail.

Jess talked to herself.

When we got there, we were informed there was a MASSIVE PARTY! What luck!

But we decided to indulge our inner academics instead. Or something. And there was a blue balloon!

We drank punč. In essence, this is hot red wine with spices, nuts, dried fruit and fresh fruit. Delicious.

We went to the Christmas Market. We forgot that everything is closed in the Czech Republic on Saturdays outside of Prague. This was the only thing open really, but that's okay because....

We found stuffed boobies.

And this. You can see his pee-pee.

In Olomouc, they have pretty awesome graffiti. Like this. George W. Bush and Audrey Hepburn? Sure.

And this.

And coffee comes out of DOORS!

They don't like fascism.

They also like faggots with their noodles! I mean, why not?

The train ride home was pretty, but we were tired. At least we got on the non-special train this time, though we did have a bit of trouble with the boty policie for putting our shoes on the seats in the compartments. He was hardcore about it.

Bone(r)s

Last week I had the luxury of a three day work week which just so happened to coincide with my friend Julia's week off at Trinity College in Ireland. Visitors!

Wednesday night Julia, her friend Chris, my new friend Erin, Julie, her friends and two girls from Poland who came to hangout from couchsurfing.org went to check out this place called Hrom Do Police because it was supposed to have some rare unfiltered Polish beer. Gotta get in touch with my roots, yo. In any case, the beer or place wasn't quite as exciting as I expected (I wanted to see things floating in it! Unfiltered!), so we took off to U Sudu, the old standby, then spent some time wandering around Charles Bridge and Mala Strana at night and take in the sights.

Julia doing a baby up the butt while shooting laser beams at me
Thursday I got out of a trip to work to drop off some graded tests and we did one of my favorite things: ride the train. Our destination was Kutna Hora, about an hour away from Prague. Once there, we caught a taxi for 50 kč ($2.50ish) to Kostnice Ossuary, which was possibly one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. In essence, decorating the walls and ceiling of this "Bone Church" are the bones of approximately 40,000 people. These "raw materials" were provided to some pretty quirky monks thanks to 14th century plagues and 15th century wars. According to my good 'ol Rick Steves guide, "Those who first placed these bones 400 years ago wanted viewers to remember that the earthly church is a community of both the living and the dead, a countless multitude that will one day stand before God." Talk about a medium.

Nothing is being used to attach these bones except themselves...
Highlight was probably the chandelier that contained every bone in the human body:

After we left, we walked to the center of Kutna Hora, saw the cathedral (from the outside because we're incapable of getting anywhere early), ate a nice Italian dinner and found our way to the smaller Kutna Hora město train station, which at first we thought was this (and thought we were literally going to have to "hop" the train):


No matter, we made it down the road, walking in the dark on the tracks to the real Kutna Hora město station, where we took a ghost train to the bigger Kutna Hora hlavni nadrazí station. I say it was a ghost train as it was only one car, changed directions mid-way through our ride, only went one stop and had a pretty damn creepy conductor. Between trains we got stared at by some creepy guy from a porch and Julia got possessed:


Friday night was when the crunk happened. I think my final count was 1 1/2 half beers, 2 margueritas (happy hour!), 2 glasses of red wine, 2 gin & tonics and 3 or so shots of tequila. Needless to say, I was pretty happy. Not quite as happy as my comrades who decided to brave the Absinth and Becherovka, however. I'll leave that to the youngins' while I throw back my G&T's, grandpa-style. Our goal was to get goth and punked up and see a hardcore show at this club called Bunkr so we donned our best studded belts (or guyliner, in Chris' case) and headed out. We successfully got to Bunkr and did a bit of headbanging, only to realize it was the WRONG one. My bad. Who knew Bunkr was such a common club name?


Nonetheless, we finally made it to the real Bunkr--a decommissioned military bunker several floors underground (Wikipedia says a bunker is a 'hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks'). Some dancing, lots of foosball and other such illicit activities were had before taking an epic journey home and passing the fuck out.

Saturday we recovered, ate vegan Chinese food, watched really cute dogs in the park by my house from a bench and got our culinary skillz on in the form of some pretty delicious homemade pizzas and calzones.

Chefxcore
Unfortunately, Sunday it was back to the real world when Julia and Chris headed back to Ireland. I sort of lesson planned and caught part of a free screening of "The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover" (1989), which was possibly the worst movie I've ever seen (re: attempted to see) in my entire life.

Luckily, today is the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution--when student protests set in action a chain of events which led to the overthrow of the Communist government. No work!

The Only All the Gay[s] in the Village Church.

This weekend was full of Mezipatra, the Queer Film Festival that came through Prague this week. I must say, the highlight was definitely Homolution, a party that took place in a big old church called Sacre Coeur. Yes, there was a gay dance party in a church. Take that, Jesus. Sometimes I love Prague.

I unfortunately spent most of the party being stressed out and not drunk enough. The negative aspect of living in a country where beer is cheaper than water is that your tolerance gets to a place where it outlasts 4 consecutive shots of tequila surprisingly quickly. The fact that I was in attendance for what must've been the most ironic party I've ever heard of made it totally worth it, though.

In any case, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon I finally got to partake in the film aspect of the festival. There were a few discussions on topics like bisexuality, queer identity and trans-issues as well throughout the week, but unfortunately I was working during the English sessions. There are a lot more films I wanted to see as the festival moves to Ostrava, so I may just have to resort to downloading them or something.

Saturday my flatmate Andrea, Becky and I saw The Secrets (תסודוח) (2007), or “Ha-Sodot” for those who prefer the transliterated. Here's a description for you:


We have all had secrets at one time of our lives or another. After her mother’s death, Naomi, reserved and religious, enters a seminary for Jewish women. There she meets the unruly Michelle, contrary to the established norms. Both women are imprisoned in the male dominated world of Judaism. A mysterious French woman, Anouk (Fanny Ardant, of 8 Women) repudiated by society, enters their lives, leaving them forever affected by her secret. Hidden passions, ambition, love and insuppressible guilt within the confines of Jewish teaching. (from the Mezipatra website)

The second film we saw today (Sunday) was Mannen som elsket Yngve (The Man Who Loved Yngve) (2008). This film had a pretty rockin' soundtrack and managed to be funny, without also being too camp, which I feel like a lot of films centered on gay-men are apt to do.


Critically acclaimed in Norway, a film on growing up, music and first loves in 1989. The ginger Jarle gets all, he could desire – a friend, a beautiful girl and a band. His world is shaken, when the new boy Yngve comes to his school. Energy and nostalgia, great music from The Cure to Norwegian punk, carelessness and bitterness of adolescence assemble in a story on coming out and inevitable responsibility. Told with authentic strength and lightness, just falling in love with Yngve and this movie. (from the Mezipatra website).

One cool thing about living in Prague is the amount of film festivals that come through here. I went to a German film festival and its respective swanky party (with free booze and food!) a few weeks ago, then this one and in a couple weeks the French film festival will be here. Always an opportunity for some good cinema, i must say. Cheap, too. The tickets to each movie at Mezipatra were only 95 kč each ($5.48)!

Overall a pretty chill weekend. Updates on some changes in my life plan coming your way soon, but I must handle the bureaucratic aspect of it all before posting such things in a public forum. Needless to say, there will be much more Wandering from this Luster for your eyes coming up.

Quality Week in Praha

It's been a pretty eventful week, I must say. Not only did I attend 4+ job interviews (About 8 total now, I'm apparently interviewing as a profession), I also managed to fit in some other sweet activities. This was seriously the week of free shit and festivals in Prague. Let's start off with this:

Thursday night. Free concert in Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí). I swear the entirety of Prague was in attendance. Not sure the band or even what language the music was in (I'm assuming Czech), but it was pretty quality even if I spent most of the time trying to find everyone I knew who was there. Went out after to have a few drinks with my flatmate and her friends and drunkenly stumbled past these guys and gals on the way to the tram home in the Tesco window...

Friday night it was time for a good shwasting. There was a burčák festival this week going on at both Náměstí Míru and Jiřího z Poděbrad. Burčák means "young wine" and from what I've gathered, about a week or so ago everyone in Prague flocked to the country to pick grapes, which they then fermented to make burčák. It's young as it hasn't been fermented as long as wine generally is and the kicker is that you're never quite sure exactly how much alcohol is in it. It tastes sort of like an acidic grape juice and sometimes it may be closer in alcohol content to actual juice and sometimes not! This is truely my kind of drink, let me tell you. In any case, I popped down to the JZP festival where there was music, food, and lots of overpriced burčák, then to the Náměstí Míru on the way to my friends' flat where there was cheaper beverage. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to check my change and got ripped off by about 150 kc. Oops. I guess I learned my lesson, though. Here's Martin and I in the midst of a game of Kings at U Sudu, tickeling our glasses. This is one of the only pictures I have of the night as I drank almost the entire 1.5 L bottle of burčák. How much alcohol is in that? You know how it goes.

Saturday was pretty chill. Woke up, attended the birthday party of the lovely Tiki in Letná park, who just turned 4 years old. I'm pretty sure I've never used the word cute as much in my life as I did in those few hours. Post-bithday cake nap:

Trying to eat my wafer. Does the birthday girl always get what she wants? Methinks not.

After coming home from the doggie b-day, Andrea (my flatmate) and I were greeted with an impromptu fireworks show almost right next to our flat! I think it's a Czech holiday on Monday? Who knows? Who cares?! It was awesome. View from our window:

Sunday I was planning to mostly be a waste, eventually preparing and printing my lesson for the second round of an interview I have tomorrow (wish me luck!), but then I was told about this big bike festival/critical mass cycle ride right at Náměstí Míru and had to check it out. Sadly, I don't have a bike here so I couldn't participate in the riding part, but I did partake in the wandering, listening and 50kc vegan burritos portion of the afternoon. Here's an image of the Shakespeare stand (an English-language bookstore/cafe/pub down the road from my flat). There were some people reading poetry and a guy playing a pretty mean accordian. Did I mention the fog machine? Yeah.

Afterwards I popped in at a birthday party for my flatmate and her boyfriend's friend at Shakespeare and now it is bed time. Whew. Hopefully by the middle of the week I'll be employed. Emma and Holly are coming Thursday for the weekend from England to visit and I am pretty pumped. My first visitors!