Giraffe Beer

After the concert at the Estates Theater, we stopped by a bar to get a drink before turning in for the night. I selected a bar/brewery, that in addition to the traditional light and dark Czech beers, also brewed specialty brews.

Since Pivovarský dům was listed under the bars category in the guide book, we expected - well- a bar. It is really more a restaurant & brewery. Since we felt bad about taking up a table during prime Saturday dinner time, we added dessert to our drink order of a Banana and a Vanilla beer. When our crepes with beer jam and fruit-filled dumplings arrived at the table, we were very glad we had decided to have dessert. While the banana beer Matt had sampled in Brussels was probably a one glass wonder, this brewery's banana beer could have been sipped on all night. The vanilla beer just called for a ice cream float to be made with it (Stubbie's style).

As we enjoyed our desserts, we noticed the next table over enjoying a "giraffe" beer. If the half-liter glasses beer is served in over here isn't enough for you, skip the pitcher and go straight to the "giraffe". The "giraffe" beer is a FOUR liter container of beer with its own spout that is meant to be shared among a table.
We enjoyed the food and drink so much we came back the next day for a sampler of all eight of their beers (light, dark, coffee, sour cherry, banana, nettle, vanilla, & wheat) and a traditional Czech lunch. What can we say - when you find something you like, enjoy it!

Concerts & Opera

In addition to cheap food and beer, Prague has plenty of venues offering concerts, plays, ballets, and operas tickets for less than the cost of a movie rental. I pick the two most magnificent venues I could find online and bought tickets for what was playing there.

On Saturday night I booked 100Kc tickets for a Geniuses of Prague Concert at the Estates Theater. The beautiful and regal theater is where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni starring himself as the conductor and is the only theater left standing where Mozart preformed. The performance turned out to be children singing famous songs from Czech masters, but it was wonderful nonetheless.



On Sunday night we attend the opera "The Barter Bride" by Bedřich Smetana at the National Theater. The opera was in Czech, however, they provided German and English subtitles on board above the stage. It was my first opera and I enjoyed the experience very much.




Both buildings we works of art themselves and added to the performances.

Peace & Freedom

After dining on superb cabbage soup with turkey meat, cornflake-coated fried codfish, and cheese and sun-dried tomato stuffed chicken at Bar Bar, we trekked to two of Prague's alternative sites.

With "Imagine" and "Love's All You Need" cued up one our iPod, we stopped to pause and read the messages for peace and freedom on the John Lennon graffiti wall. Our next mission was visit a few of the controversial sculptures by Czech art David Černý. His most famous act was probably painting a Soviet tank pink- while it was an active war monument. He was briefly arrested for the stunt and the tank was repainted green. Later Parliament repainted the tank pink and moved it to a museum. However, the city is still filled with his unusual sculptures. You might also want to check out his most recent sculpture that has been banned from exhibits.

The sculpture Piss is located in the courtyard of the Franz Kafka museum. The pool the men are peeing into is actually in the shape of the Czech Republic. Their body parts are animated and they "write" words and phrases of peace and freedom. Apparently you can send a text message to a number and the sculptures will "write" your message. Marriage proposal idea - anyone?
The second sculpture, Quo Vadis, is located in the courtyard of the German Embassy. The name means "Where are you going?" and the sculpture premiered on the eve of the joining of the German currencies after reunification.
It is a good thing this sculpture wasn't located in the courtyard of the US Embassy - because then all of about a dozen people would get to enjoy it. Speaking of the US Embassy, we stopped by to check it out since it was down the street from the German Embassy. While it was not barricaded in and the road in front of it rerouted, it did have an interesting feature. If you want to drive on the road past the US Embassy be prepared to stop your car, present identification, open the the trunk and hood for inspection, and have the underneath searched for bombs. I am sure all the neighbors love this - but hey, I guess you don't have to worry much about petty crime.

Prague Take Two

Day two in Prague started very early in the morning- 4:30 am early. Not because we wanted to see the Charles Bridge before it filled with tourists, see the sun come up over the castle, or visit any early morning fish market, but rather because we had the worst hostel roommates ever. I know people are going to stay up later or wake-up earlier than us in every place we go and do some strange things, but there are some common rules of hostel etiquette and they broke every single on of them.

Rising for the second time just past 8, we headed out to explore the architecture of Prague. Having become enamored with Art Nouveau architecture last week in Brussels, I was excited to see countless Art Nouveau buildings in Prague. The Municipal Building and Hotel Paris are two wonderful, classic examples of Art Nouveau; everything in the buildings was designed to be practical, beautiful, and harmonious. The stained-glass windows are definitely one of my favorite features. I imagine the €150 a night stay in the Hotel Paris would be worth the splurge just to stay in the glamor of the building.Next we went to visit a building of the extreme opposite, a cubist building. Gone where the curved lines, metal & glass structures, and floral motifs - the building was an example of geometry and minimalism.

Prague has done a wonderful job of blending their immensely varied architecture, so that no building seems out of place or draws attention to itself. After that, it was over the river and down the street to the wonderful lunch spot we found the day before.

Mikulas Day

After the movie, we grabbed a cup of warm medovina (or mead) and wandered through the Christmas Markets in Wencelas Square. The atmosphere was cheery and festive and the square was decorated with trees, lights, and nativities, but for a moment you might think it was Halloween- except all the costumes were the same.It was Mikulas Day in Prague - a holiday similar to Sinterklaas with a few notable differences. Mikulas, the Czech word for St. Nicholas, is celebrated on the eve of December 6th in many eastern European countries.

Teenagers, dressed as St. Nicholas, angels, and devils, travel in packs to young children and ask them if they have been bad or good this year. The good ones sing a song and are rewarded with small treats and candy from St. Nicholas and the angels. The bad ones, well they have a fate worse than Spain for year. According the Czech Republic tourism website, bad children are sacked by the devils and taken straight to hell for the year. I don't know about you, but I think as a child I would have rather stayed home and forgone the candy than wonder the streets and worry if I had not cleaned my room up enough and therefore was going to get sacked. Especially with teenagers making the decision - we all know what great judges of characters they are (insert story from your own adolescence here).

While observing the holiday activities, we enjoyed roasted chestnuts and trdlo - a sweet, roasted bread.

Stimivani

I may not walk around with "Edward Cullen is my boyfriend" t-shirts, own all the Twilight Flair on Facebook, or want to take a pilgrimage to Forks, Washington - but don't let that fool you into thinking I am any less obsessed with Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga than the average 15 year-old girl.

Thanks to Carolina L., I discovered these books just weeks before moving overseas. I read all four 500+ page books in the last two weeks we were in Gainesville - between helping with Theta recruitment, packing, saying goodbye, etc. Everything else was pushed aside once the first sentence had been read.

While the movie release date was November 21st in the US, I was devastated to find out it wasn't coming out over here until January. So I did what any logical Twilight fan would do - I looked to see when it was coming out in France, Belgium, Germany, etc. I soon discovered the earliest release date in a country where I could find cheap plane/train tickets was the Czech Republic. And so our trip to Prague was born.

On our first afternoon in Prague we headed to the movie theater to buy our tickets for Stimivani - which fortunately was showing in English with Czech subtitles. (I'll have to be honest and say I would have still gone to see it even if it was in Czech with no subtitles.) Loving the Harry Potter books but hating the movies made me worried about how I would feel about the Twilight movie. I was pleasently surprised; even Matt enjoyed the movie. It was different enought from the book to be engaging while still capturing the feel and allure from the original story. (Although I don't think Bella's father could have been casted more poorly.)

I think it was fitting we saw Twilight in Prague - it is considered the birthplace of vampires by many horror films, has dug-up vampire graves in the city, and is the setting for many vampire movies.

Long Awaited Lunch

By the time we finished the castle, it was past 3 o'clock and our stomachs were reminding us all the nourishment we had taken in that day were poor cups of cappuccino from the airport lounge. After consulting the guidebook and reading up on the budget options in the neighborhood, we headed to Restaurant Bar Bar in the Mala Strana area.

The restaurant was hidden below the streets of Mala Strana in an artistically decorated cellar. We perused the menu to find we could enjoy and gourmet meal and beer for less than a sandwich from a sidewalk vendor in the Netherlands. We were in!

We started the meal with 30 Kc (€1) half-liter Czech Beer - Staropramen. I enjoyed the half dark/half light variety, while Matt sipped on the light version. Everyone is right - Czech beer just may be the best (and cheapest) beer in Europe. It was crisp, clean, and smooth - perfect for an afternoon break from site seeing.

Our lunch was probably the best food we have eaten since arriving in Europe. Matt enjoyed salmon with a pesto and sun-dried tomato sauce and I feasted on a Parma ham wrapped pork loin with an apple and plum sauce. Amazing. There were even quarter slices of fresh pineapple on the plates as garnish.

Even more amazing was our bill was less than €15! We enjoyed it so much we came back the next day for the 120Kc (€5) lunch menu consisting of soup, an entree, and a drink. The cornflake-crusted fried codfish I had the next day was hands down the best fried fish I have ever had!

If you visit Prague this is a can't miss lunch spot. Go early in your trip because you might want to visit it twice!

Castle

After checking into our hostel, we headed off to Prague's main site - the Pražský hrad. It might just be the biggest ancient castle and seemed more like a walled-city. The interior of many of the buildings have beautiful, ornate Gothic vaulting and ribbing, including the Old Royal Palace.Apparently it used to be acceptable to sentence someone to being throw out the window, or defenestration, in Prague in the Middle Ages. The Old Royal Palace is where the Second Defenestration of Prague occurred, although the councilors' lives where saved when they landed on a pile of dung.

While the castle buildings varied widely in their architectural styles, most of the building were early, middle, or late Gothic in origin. Contrasting this was the St. George Basilica, which is probably the best example of preserved example of Romanesque architecture in Prague. Golden Lane provided a view into 16th century cottages , originally built to house the sharp shooters of the castle guards. Over the years the cottages have also been lived in by goldsmiths, squatters, and artists. Kafka even lived here for a short period of time (in #22). Today they house shops hawking tourists souvenirs. The view of the castle at night from the Charles Bridge is spectacular.

Prague

On Friday we arrived in Prague, the city of a 1000 spires, where the streets are paved with gold. Err...umm...cobblestones - of all shapes, sizes, designs, and dimensions. What's a few blisters and sore feet, when the travel guides promise the best beer in Europe, cheap food, and a great introduction to Eastern Europe?Prague did not disappoint - and we will share how we ate our way through the capital of the Czech Republic, discovered €5 operas, fell in love with Moorish inspired architecture, and found the smoothest (and cheapest) beer in Europe.