Sorry for the delay, but more then two years after my abroad experience I am now posting my notes about the second half of my abroad experience. This definitely isn't as my blog posts from the first half, but it's more so for my purposes anyway so I don't really care. HA! Anyway, here it is:
• Prague
- This girl in my class who was nice and helping me with studying said some borderline anti-Semitic shit. And I go “Im jewish.” And she goes “NO YOU’RE NOT!!” and I go “yup.” Her face turned so red. I don’t remember what it was about. It was something about us being stingy. Funny.
• Naples
- pizza is bommmmmb (and everywhere else I've been it has been also)
- beautiful city
- castle nuevo
- exhausted at night from waking up early so we just got a good dinner and some bottles of wine, passed out
- took train to rome sat across from guy from swingers
- at metro station saw woman without a nose. Never realized befor this
- how important a nose is until I saw someone without one. Jokes made at her expense: "I wonder if she cut off her nose to spite her face" "hey, its mrs. Potatohead" "a: how do u think that happened? B: who nose."
- collaseum, fountain, and pantheon
- sick street performer, I helped out and danced… theres a video
- grown man whistle at hot woman in dinner… real classy
- went out to a bar
- I now like sparkling water occasionally. Accidentally ordered it but ended up being a great call. Kinda similar to dr pepper. (used to hate it but based on a technicality I love it)
- saw swaztika at bus stop. Big wake up call that I was in another country.
- prostitute flashed me. Not very appealing.
- colloseum tour
- midget beggar was well dressed.
- pig head at where we ate lunch
- palestinian parade. Theres a video of this. Crazy.
- area di tito (forums) by dude
- went to club
- 1 and a half hours of sleep before vatican tour
- vatican tour with dude
- kicked out of sistine chapel
- took nap all day, then woke up and got dinner with some of my roomates friends from camp (bomb chicken parm), afterwards we walked around to trevi fountain (which wed already been to but at night its illuminated and beautiful). Then were walking and an irish homeless man (michael) comes up to me with a guittar asking for money. I told him only if he played a song for me, played the worst guittar ever but was so funny. I videotaped it.
- next day woke up and went to the pantheon. Round building. Over 1800 years old. One of the only totally round buildings in the world. Skylight in the middle.
• Florence
- Got in went to our shitty hostile... The guy there tried to use reverse psychology on us (he's a germaphobe, he doesn't give out towels because of it etc...) Were like riiight ur saying that so we don't think its dirty and u don't give out towels cuz ur cheap. Anyway we put our shit down then go to piazza di g _ and get a great view of the city. We chill, get a couple of beers, then hang out there for awhile..
- That night I got dinner with amie kugler (mia friend) and her two roomates at this restaraunt aqua. I had a top 3 steak of my life there (blueberry). Then after we went and met up with like 10 of my other miami friends who study in florence to pregame at this bar (including dan shaer, alyssa neufeld, jamie strauss, alex lyons, kerry sauber, and jackie roney). They all suggested that the following night we do a big miami dinner, I said thatd be great. Later that night, at the club we went to I ran into my baltimore friend Emily brilliant (luckily ran into her b/c found out she was going to berlin the weekend I was planning on going alone). That night I slept at amies.
- Next day we woke up and got sandwiches with my miami friend dan. He showed us the leather block where there are many shops selling a variety of items. it was here that I probably made the biggest impulse buy of my life. I saw a belt buckel with the "&" sign on it and decided I needed it. The thought process went something like this... My name is andrew. Half of that is and. The belt buckel is of the "and" sign. HOW CAN I NOT BUY A BELT BUCKEL WITH MY NAME ON IT?!
- Then we went to make reservations to see michelangelos "david"
- On our walk back we ran into these 2 girls id met the night before and they invited us up to their apartment to hang out a little bit. We took a nap afterwards.
- That night my roomates and I met up with my miami friends including dan shaer, alyssa neufeld, jamie strauss, alex stetzer, amie kugler, alex lyons, kerry sauber, lindsey ullian, jackie roney, amanda grabel, and abbey sharpe. Nice seein everyone, and even nicer that they took the time to organize something like that for me.
- After that we split off and went to a bar where they had a beer pong tournament. Before the game started I went up to a hot girl with a sign around her neck to ask her what it was. She said she was turning 21 and had 21 tasks she had to complete by the end of the night. One of them was to give a lap dance and the other one was to take a body shot off of someone. I let her do both. Happy to help out whenever I can. Good Samaritan. I lost in beer pong 2nd round but my roommates made it to the finals. Overall great night.
- Next day we had a reservation to see david at 930 cuz we had to check out at 11 from our hostel. We then woke up at 8 so we could get food, etc before hand. We get to the museum and it says on the door "staff meeting until 12." The entire definition of a reservation is undermined by acts like these. The guy who made the reservation did the country difference concept "I do not know how u do this in america, but this happens in Italy." Bullshit.
- finally we make it to david... Not that impressed. Maybe because vatican and sistine chapel were so ridiculous. After that we went back, packed, and left for venice.
• Venice
- We get into venice and its literally on the water. Like, we took a water taxi from the train to the area of venice where our hotel was. Their are no cars at all in venice. Water taxis and gondalas. As we get in, there is like no one there but couples. Store wise it's only the nicest: robert cavali, gucci, hermes, etc... We check into our hotel. Killin it. Best spot yet. They changed sheets every night and gave us new towels etc...
- We walked around, shopped a little bit, got dinner. Salmon and shrimp was bombbbb. Had some wine, chillin, went back to the room, showered and planned to go out. On our way leavin the hotel we ran into our friend mario from prague and invited him to come with us to go find a bar. he followed. Findin a place to go out wound up being a lot harder in venice then we thought. As were walking we ran into jeff, the dude from our vatican tour. I knew he was traveling alone and he was a nice guy so I invited him to come with us to find the bar. He agreed so now we have a crew. We finally find a bar and go up. Very chill night.
- Next day we slept in and then got breakfast at the hotel. They had chocolate cornflakes which I haven't had in awhile. Then we went to glass island. It was rainey all day, though. Watched them blow glass and make glass sculptures. Picked up presents for my fam. This was very cool. He said people who blow glass here do it as a result of tradition, its not like a job choice. Got myself glass penguins. After the glass factory we took the water taxi back to our area and just walked around. I was trying on fedoras because I always wanted to be the kid who can wear a fedora. Unsuccessful. Conclusion is I don't see myself becoming that kid anytime soon.
- Came back, watched the new lost in their internet cafe. Got ready to go out.
- Got another bommmmmb dinner. Sea bass was sick.
- Then went out and made friends with italians. It was an awkward intro but I finally got into their crew. "Yerp" they said it like “yehhhp”
- Next day woke up and had to leave to go to milan (the last stop on our spring break). We all got in an argument on when we should leave. It was a beautiful day and because it was shitty the day before half of the group thought we should chill a few more hours and the other half thought we should just leave. Instead we compromised and went on a gondala ride. Mad funny. generally, for those who don't know, gondalas are for couples who want a romantic getaway. So sure enough, my four roomates and I took one. I blackberry dj'd. The playlist was as follows: fuel - shimmer, hootie and the blow fish - only wanna be with u, vanessa carlton - a thousand miles, blues traveler – run around, snoop dogg - sexual seduction, common - the light, kanye west everything I am. Killin it.
• Milan
- In milan we get in and walk to our hostel. We get there and they tell us that they are doing renovations and we have to go to their brother hotel which is even nicer. We get there and they tell us they only have a room with a queen sized bed and a room with 2 twins. It’s 5 of us. I flip out on them, and they don’t budge. We all wind up having to rock paper scissor to see which 3 dudes had to sleep in the queen. I lost I was pretty pissed when it happened but it was actually pretty funny.
- Its already 8 by this time so were pretty hungry, go get food, everyones really tired but we were still trying to go out. Half of us made it out and we went to a bar on the corner for an hour or so. Since we had a kinda early flight the following day we went back and passed out.
• Prague
- got back to prague and like the weather transformed. It was literally snowing 2 days before we left for italy and now its 70 degrees here and beautiful. The weather is so rejuvenating. They have little shops out in old town square and tables. I have a feeling I'm going to be hanging out there a lot.
- Went to bed early so I could get up early to see obama... While standing on the metro we watched his motorkade go thru... 20 ft away from him
- Went to soccer match
• Berlin
- just made train with my homie Nick... Found hostel where my friend emily was staying... Got traditional german food... Went out... Pub crawl left while at atm... Got bottle of jager.. Went back to hostel drank there... Went out with emily and friends... Got waaaasted...met up with random ukrainian girls... Back to hostel and woke early for walking tour... Once again juuust made train.
• Prague
- Got back and found ill spot outside to do work, free wifi
- That night friends parents took us to dinner at "barracks" ... No relation. Bomb fish. Afterwards saw cuba gooding jr.
- Next day my parents came in town. Been hanging with them, did a shitty tour with them. Informative but guide was the worst. Great seeing them. Hooked me up with my own room for a couple of nights while they were there.
- Beer factory with parents and roomates
• London
- On the plane over to london we reached adequate the altitude so I reclined my seat back all the way. After doing this, the guy behind me told me I was laying in his lap and asked if I'd please move it up a little bit. Because he asked nicely I obliged but I don't think that my one luxury while riding coach should be shortchanged because of a miscalculation by a czech airline engineer. The guy couldve moved his chair back, or he couldve just not been a little bitch.
- I had my headphones on listening to 808s and heartbreak when I felt a tap on my shoulder. there's little more disconcerting then unexpectedly glacing over your shoulder to find a foreign head peeking over the top of your chair like wilson from home improvement. I wanted to helga patacki his face (that was a hey arnold reference). Bullshit.
- Why do miami club promoters still invite me to their parties when they know I'm in another country? My friend krum said he wished their were an "abroad" button under the "maybe attending" option. I feel that. Sometimes though, I like to reply that I'm coming just to throw the number count off. It's my little way of remaining relevant in the party scene. Anyway that I can mettle in their business gives me pleasure.
- Buckingham palace was disappointing. Thought I'd be able to try to make them laugh.
- Random, but Dad claimed he didn’t “believe in Credit card signature” haha.
- Absolut Ice bar with parents
- Met up with girl I met in florence... Before I met with them made friends with 2 random london guys in the bar.
- Next day woke early and went on double decker bus tour
- My mom asked me to blog about this... I wanted traditional english breakfast. Walked in somewhere and discovered it had a french name "cafe rouge". I then suggested we leave and go somewhere english. My mom thought it was a ridiculous suggestion but acquiesced anyway. We then went to a restaraunt named bosleys and had an excelent english breakfast. She maintains we wouldve gotten a good English breakfast at the other place. I agree we mightve, but it wouldve been a stupid risk.
- That night my parents and i went to see "thriller live"
- Afterwards I hung out with my mom and watched role models.
- Next day went to hard rock café
- Then took rock bus tour
- Facebook is saying miami is the number 1 party school. I’m seeing a bunch of Mini feed hoes who feel responsible posting about it. bLaaaah.
• Prague
- Got back to praha.... 5 story club night story
• Krakow
- That night we took a train to krakau poland... Big party on the train
- Next morning went to auschvitz and Berkanau. Don’t really want to talk to much about this. Disgusting that this could happen.
- Afterwards wandered the city with mike and avi... Met a really legit dude at a traditional polish food spot.
- That night we had a big hotel pregame then went to the club
- Following day we woke up, started to do a walking tour that cea set up for us and after an hour avi and I bounced to get food. We then met up with some kids from our group and laid out by a lake with a few beers
- Cea took us to dinner
- That night took train back and partied as much as we could. Got in at 7 in the morning
• Prague
- In prague thru wed. ... Tuesday both of my classes were canceled which was great..
• Greece
- Wed. We left for athens greece (crew was me jp dave joe jesse avi and nick), we were meeting up with nikki in greece after she visited london.
- Sketchy cab driver with me and Nikki... Last minute jumped ship
- We got into athens and nikki and I went to our hotel. We went to the roof restaraunt, shared a greek salad, bruschetta, and had some pretty good beer (mythos). We then meet up with the other dudes who were staying at a hostel. On our way we met a homeless greek man who I thought was gonna ask for money, but he really was just testing his english. He recommended a few movies based on me saying gladiator is my favorite movie (my real favorite movie is fight club, but I didn't know if hed know it.)
- Story: Street vendors running from cops, I made joke and fell on my face. Scraped my elbow and got dirt all over my white hoody (the ladder was more dire).
- While in a square, dave said no thank you to a woman selling shit so she screamed something in greek and spat at him. Hillarious.
- We eventually sat down for dinner which was pretty good... Street vendors kept coming up to us. I bought a lighter that shocks u when u click it... American smokers look out, its comin home with me. Another street vendor came up to us with a loud megaphone. Looking back I definitely should’ve bought it to supplement some of my videos. Prague Is a very reserved/quiet city, running thru the streets with a megaphone has great comedic potential.
- After dinner we went to a bunch of bars and drank...on our way we saw two dogs having sex. We were mortified yet couldn't take our eyes off of them. Then Jp had us get this traditional greek drink which was 40 percent alcohol. I was done. eventually went back and passed out.
- Next morning we woke up and met the guys in the square to go to the acropolis. It was sooo cool. Nikki and I eventually split off from them to get food and do some more touring before we all had to take the fairy to the island of paros (where wed be the majority of the island). Nikki and I saw the library and a small museum that had cool ancient artifiacts.
- We walked back, got our stuff, and took a cab to the fairy
- On the fairy we didn't have assigned seats, which I didn't mind because a few of us sat on the deck and took in the beautiful views. Also on the deck were two golden retrievers who were tied up. I miss my dog ozzy so I hung with the golden retrievers for most of the ride. At one point though, one of the retrievers looked at me strange, so I had no choice but to rap battle him. This freestyle battle is on video. From here, "fink the butcher" was born. Fucking ridiculous, but very funny.
- That night we got into our hotel which was nice enough. Since there were 8 of us we had 4 rooms of two. I was obviously with nikki.
- We got in, got our stuff together then went out to the bars. We went into this bar blaaasting music. We assumed because their music was loud they'd have the strongest party. Incorrect. There were 5 people in there besides us.
- The next day we all set our alarms to wake up early to get 4-wheelers and lay on the beach. We have a funny video of this, but I had to ride with nikki because I didn’t bring my license. Haha so wack.
- We finally get on the road and it's sick. Great weather so we can see far and also the island had plenty of random paths for us to drive off onto. After getting food (and getting jp and I our 4-wheelers), we drove and found a fairly isolated beach devoid of people (with the exception of a topless woman); needless to say we set up shop. It was a little windy, but the sun was strong and the view was great. While here, joe and I heterosexually took pictures of eachother because of the great sights. Nikki wouldn't partake except for shaking her head at us... I missed nikki for shit like that, haha.
- After we laid out for awhile, I battled a donkey... And owned the jackass. Then we got gyros (pronounced hyeeros). Pita sandwiches stuffed with pork or chicken. I ordered pork everytime in hopes to receive the great swine flu. I had no such luck. While on the topic of hyeeeeros... Between the 8 of us we completed more then 100 of them during the entire weekend. We did rough estimates.
- We then took naps to get good for the night.
- That night we pregamed in one of our rooms then went out... Both nights we partied hard, but did so with ourselves. I of course walked up to a bunch of different groups of people each night, but with little legitimate success. Greeks are very polite people. Every group I walked up to were nice, yet everything I said got minor responses except for a formal reply, even if it was a joke. The most I got was one girl telling me "I was funny" but even then I was refused when I asked for her number. The most interesting conversation though was with a girl the last night who broke down greeks like this. "We're not as friendly as americans. We go to bars to party with our friends and people we know. We don't dance with people unless we've met them before or been introduced by a mutual friend. In england, when I studied there, all of the greeks went out together and had similar interactions with the english as I'm having with you. It's simply not our way."
- The next day we woke up and went to a different beach. Once again, it was a beautiful day and at this beach there was a volley ball court. After laying out for awhile we challenged the people currently playing to a game. They accepted. We lost 2-1. The terms were that whoever lost had to buy the other team a round of beers. One of our competitors was german. His exact quote (in a thick german accent) was "I can already taste the ___". This may have been my first participation in a competitive sport in the last few years since I played tennis last. I had a good time though. While getting food and drinks with them we got into a serious political discussion with two of the guys that we played volleyball against. I asked them what they thought about turkish integration into the eu because I had to do a project on that subject a few weeks later and thought they might be able to shed some light on some europeans opinion on the subject. They did, as well as various other subjects. From the economic crisis, to greece's corrupt government, to the AIG situation, to the Maddof ponzi scheme. Very interesting getting their opinions.
- We then once again went back and took naps until we went out that night. Once again, we went out and it was a good night.
- Following day we went out on a boat for half day to see some cool sights and simply be out on the water. Yannis took us out. Good guy.
- That night we bounced back to athens... Nikki and I stayed at a holiday inn hotel while my roomates did the hostel thing. Nikki left early the following morning so we said our goodbyes. Great seeing her.
- Our hotel was pretty nice, so the following day I just chiiiiilled till our flight. Met up with my boys, and me and avi drank the native greek drink and got drunk for the flight. Then passed out.
• Prague
- Got in and I got a thai massage cuz my neck was still hurting from how I slept on it during the greek flight.
- The following night I went to hard rock cafe and got my server. She hooked us up with free ice cream. it was cinco de mayo, and they were playing mexican music. Understand, they were playing mexican music at the one restaraunt in prague they actually would play good music. Ehh...
- That night there was a huge pregame at this girls appartment. It reminded me of college cuz there was actually a lot of people there. Another fun night.
- The following day I got my life in order to prepare for my paris trip. During this day I realized how tired of traveling I really am. I felt guilty because I was in the middle of something that others would die for, but regardless, hopping around gets really tiring.
- That night I passed out early for my flight the following morning.
• Paris
- We got in and met up with our friends at our hotel who had been in allready.
- After grabbing food (there bread is bomb) we went and did a free walking tour. Now let me clarify this, as grateful as I am to have the opportunity to do what I'm doing, I am soooo tired of tours. I did it anyway because my roomates were all going and I figured I should suck it up for a few hours and learn about the city. I'm trying to think of a piece of useful information from this tour right now but I can't... Cool enough pictures though. Oh, the gypsies suck. But I couldve told you that.
- That night we went out with the intention of doing a pub crawl. Based on our dinner it didn't work out.
- Went to the eifle tower with Joe. So sick
- Afterwards I got some muscles (a french specialty)... We then went out, nothing special
- Following day we came home
• Prague
- The day we got back was a saturday so I was able to nap then go out. I did a lot of wandering this night. Pregamed in a bunch of different kids from my programs rooms, and went to chappeau (there was a czech rap group: 3 rappers, one singer, one dj). Though I didn't understand what they were saying I complemented them on their performance afterwards (one of them had a strong rapid-fire delivery). He didn't even understand english. I love that shit. Hip-hop is so much bigger then the u.s. Afterwards wandered to 5 story, and wandered around even more after. Haha.
- Next day I chilled online a lot and did a project on google.
- Monday night I went to chappeau despite being tired just to push myself and go out and be social. Wound up being a great night.
- The following day I did my project on turkish accession into the eu so that I could go out that night for my programs booze cruise.
- Booze cruise was wiiiiild, very very serious pregame. After it we went to a club, then I wandered over to chappeau. Great night.
- It was on this night I decided against going to sensation white that upcoming weekend (a big rave in budapest). School work was a reason I was giving, but looking back it was really that I needed a break. I am writing this the sunday after I wouldve gone to sensation white and I can vouch that I did no work this weekend. But I feel totally refreshed.
- Wed. Night I passed out hard
- Thursday night I got dinner with ariel at "pragues best burger joint" called yama burger. It was her last night so afterwards we went to this other spot in old town square and got drinks that overlooked the square. Very pretty. Then she took me to a whisky bar. It was sooo good. Its called bar and books. I will be back before I leave to do a tasting. We met some l.a. Girls at that bar.
- That Night there was a pregame in our appartment complex. Really fun... We went out to radost after. I almost got into a fight on this night. Kid tried to start a fight with me last night cuz he said I was a pretty boy. So I called him a fag cuz that's essentially him calling me good looking. Then he called over his big friend and while sparking a cigarette told his friend to "handle it." This enraged me because he's clearly the type of kid who starts shit because he knows he has his big friend backing him. I then asked his friend if he was his bouncer. And if he was I'd pay him more then his bitch-ass friend was.
- So then the big kid said "stop running your mouth, I'm not tryna fight, just break it up.". So I told him I didn't have any beef with him just his homosexual friend and it was over. Later on one of my friends said to the kid who started it "it's cool to start fights when your on coke." The kid replied "I am on coke." It explained a lot. Also on this night I earned a free beer after using the word "usurp" and someone betting me that it wasn't a real word. Totally usurped a beers worth of money from his wallet. Ahaha.
- The following morning when I got back I slept through 3 or 4 o'clock the following afternoon (my roomates left that weekend). I got about 13 hours of sleep in total.
- Friday night we pregamed and went to a random club... Good time. This marked the first night of me having the appartment to myself.
- The following day I watched movies all day and was a lazy piece of shit. I was supposed to see wolverine but fell asleep again by 6 at night. I then woke up at 1130, started another movie, then fell asleep again until 930 the following morning. Around 14-15 hours of sleep.
- Sunday morning I got a bomb breakfast at globe and did some studying for exam tuesday. Went out to chappeau for a little and had b-52s.
- Monday went around to clubs with avi negotiating. Ended up at chappeau.
- Tuesday studied for biz ethics all day, negotiated club for thursday. Took exam. That night went to chappeau, strip club. "Swag." Nick’s last night.
- Wed. No class. Met up with girl in park. Bought pastel picture. Walked around prague with avi and mike at night. Didn't make it to eiffle tower. Baught bottle of wine. walked and with mask on. I bought russian hat. We were turned down at lavka. Big bouncer said to me "your fucking idiot" then went to chappeau and made south african friends. Came back and girls next door had sausage fest pregame which resulted in police coming. We were in our rooms so it was ok. Then we went to mecca for the last time. Still hate it, ha. Came home early to meet with friend. Great night.
- Thursday I woke up and finished my criminal law assignment. Went to pick up tickets for duplex (club I planned big party for) 100 in total. After I finished my assignment I went and got the stuff for the white russians (my appartment was russia). We named it All OVA TEMPLOVA… it was around the world themed pregame before we went to the club. Every1 came to pregame including professors marta and radka. No police because we spoke to next door people. Every1 came to duplex. Awesome night.
- Friday woke up and it was raining hard, as a result I just hung out with all of my roomates until I had to give my ppt in my advertising class. Went to alberts and got chicken. Finkelstein with a ph. Silly southerners. Moved upstairs. That night I got back and we had a pregame between the 3 of our rooms and we went to this random club then ended at chappeau rouge. Avi had beef with sonya the bar tender for them not remembering his name. Avi made a huge play with only 20 crown.
- Went to the zoo with my old and new roomates. Zoo is rated 10th best in world. After discussing idiot kids who do reckless things for attention, my boy jp jumped into the moose pit. Hillarious. There was a sign that said no ice cream, knives, or dogs. Funny sign. Also I pet some goats. That night we got back, took a nap, then woke up at 12 to go out. We went to a pregame first and guess who was outside? The guy who started shit the other night. This time though it was me and my crew of 15-20 dudes and just him. I go, yo, remember me? And he’s like yo man and goes for a handshake and I don’t give him one. One of my boys, Jesse, goes “pretty big pussy move to start shit when you have a crew with you”. He ended up walking away.
- Then we went to 5 story club. Then we went to mcdonalds. "I'm from israel" "I'm jewish!" "... I'm arab" ahaha Worst service ever. Also pricing didn't make sense. "How much for bad service" "prohseem?" "Nevermind, that's free"
- Woke up, went to radost fx for their classic brunch, studied for an hour or so with my friend for our criminal law class then me and a crew from templova (our building) went to beer fest. There we met up with my roomates (old and new, haha) and chilled. It was sick, like 5 or 6 tents of people just drinking different exotic kinds of beer. My boys made friends with some random czech dudes who rap and we cyphered. Afterwards they said there was an open mic night I should go to because they were impressed. We went out there and I was pretty nervous, it was one of the first times I'd ever spontaneously performed like that. The dude got on stage with me and we basically went verse for verse. I wasn't that happy with how I did, I'm a perfectionist. My 2 boys who came with me said I did well and they thought my stage precense was good, but I know personally I can do infinitely better. This was a huge experience because it basically showed me that I really need to work on my live performance, and specifically breath control. I know that I can write really well but if what you write isn't heard, it doesn't really matter, does it? Sick time though, I got some of the dudes contact info. I was wasted from the day and all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but my boy avi pushed me saying it was one of our last nights. I knew he was right so we went to the bar next door for a little bit before I passed out.
- Monday (the day before I leave prague) I woke up which was very hard to do considering the past day and went to school to take my exam, and turn in the two papers that were due. Also I turned in my books. Because I had to take my exam I was cracked out on adderall which was unfortunate for the rest of my day but I made a list of things I had to do before I left (because I was cracked out). Following is the list midday Before leave - synogogue, mini eiffel tower, tulip, and whiskey tasting, and huge castle. Then I got lunch at a sick czech restaraunt. I got sparkling water and spicy beef goulash. Last czech meal here. I'm glad though.
- Left there and went to buy nikki a "czech me out" shirt... Cuz someone in my family needed to own 1 and it definately wasn't me. Then gave the panini press and speakers to our fam friend andy. Then went inside the chapel (find name) that looks like magic kingdom. Then went to jewish quarter and walked through jew cemetary and saw 2 synogogues including the spanish 1. Kinda cool. Came back and got 3 of my friends to go with me to the eiffel tower. After that we met up with our friends for our "last supper" at crazy cow. After dinner we packed (since we didn't pack all day). While packing we kept taking absynth shots preparing to go out to chappeau rouge for our last night in prague.
- Chappeau was sad, emotions were running rampant. Everyone was wasted also which I'm sure contributed but still. Sad. Said goodbyes etc and rolled back to our appartment with a bunch of my boys. We all hung out late. I passed out around 3, while my friend avi decided he was gonna pull an all nighter. Hillarious. When I woke up at 6 the next morning to my boy mike saying bye (had an early flight), avi was cracked out. Haha. After finishing packing we walked to the lenin wall to lwave our mark in prague. "Templova, yerp. Once in a lifetime. -fink". Then we walked back and cabs were there to take us to the airport. The airport delayed our flight 2 hours cuz they had to change a tire. As a result I missed my connection at heathrow to dullus. On plane to heathrow woman went crazy. I was in emergency row. Once in heathrow the option of either connecting and having my mom drive 3 hours to pick me up or stay with 7 of my boys at a comped hotel for the night. I chose the ladder. We got comped dinner, breakfast, and it was all really nice. Hotel was 4 stars. It was a fun last night. The next morning jp and I left for the airport. On the plane I watched curb, gran torrino, and the simpsons. This was all before I passed out. Should have shaven my playoffs beard. Fuckin customs. Walked out, saw my mom and it was then that I knew my trip had ended. Fucking crazy 4 months. Best experience of my life. Anyone who is fortunate enough to have the oppertunity to go definately should. I feel like I've matured a lot. Blah blah, thanks for reading.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
3/24 (accounting for the last month or so)
So,
The other day I went to McDonalds and got a large French fry (or is it fries?).
I then had to use the men’s room, so I followed the indicating signs and reached the door. Upon entering there was a woman sitting at a table with a metal bin next to her. I started to walk to the urinal, and she pointed to the compartment, then pointed to a sign underneath that said “15 crowns” (which is the equivalent of 7 and a half cents U.S.) Apparently I was supposed to pay to use the bathroom. What is this? I asked the woman (who couldn’t speak English) if this service also included wiping. She told me she didn’t speak English. Whatever. I definitely didn’t feel good about it though. And no, the payment only included the receptacle… no added benefits. Needless to say, I was pissed off.
…pun, yerp.
Umm, I don’t believe I’ve posted since I was in Vienna, Austria. Let’s go one at a time.
We took a $20 bus trip to Vienna and it was actually pretty fun. They played departed on the first leg of the trip. Additionally I was joking around with a really cute Czech waitress who worked on the bus (the joke was playing off of her limited English… if I wrote it here it’d be lost and I’d look very corny). It was based on chocolate tea…. Ignore it. Anyway, after the ride I asked her for her number and she gave it to me. We’ve been texting each other. We’ll see what happens… although if something does happen it won’t be on here. Sorry.
In Vienna we went out to a club and Austrian’s were less then friendly to us. Upon walking up to a girl I had a hand shoved in my face as a form of rejection. I simply walked up and said hi. Through her hand I asked if she knew where the bathroom was. Her open hand (still 2 inches from my face) then changed into a pointer finger, showing me where the restroom was). That’ll humble you. I eventually, after a few Austrian rejections realized (much like American girls) I had to be more subtle with my approach. Despite this, I consider Austrian’s (at least the ones I encountered with the exception of the few I hit it off with) to be unfriendly. In their defense though, I will say that while I was talking to a few girls, some Austrian guys kept coming up dancing to the girls with absolutely no regard for their reaction. I suppose this would make any girl well guarded.
The following day we went sight-seeing. We first went to the Parliament, but the tour didn’t start for an hour and a half. As a result, we went ice skating. Videos are up on facebook. I pulled out my back. My athleticism definitely is demonstrated here. Lots of fun though.
We then went to the Parliament and got a tour. The tour given by a bilingual guide who first spoke in German, then English. In one part of the tour as she spoke in German, I wandered into the other room and got a picture sitting in an official looking chair. She later took us into the room and told us that the chair I had sat in (which she clearly didn’t know) was where the president of the provinces sat and was strictly prohibited for anyone else to sit in.
After our tour, we went on a wine tasting with girls we had met during the tour (who also study abroad in Prague). Videos of that are up on Facebook too. The best wine I had tried tasted literally just like Honey. Mad good.
After this we went to “Haus Der Muzik” or House of Music. This was cool because Vienna is an extremely musically rich city and I was able to learn about those famous composers born there (namely Mozart and Strauss). My favorite quote of Mozart’s was (this is me paraphrasing) “It is a great misconception to this that I do not work hard on each of my musical creations. I put in great time and effort into every piece of music I touch.” Gotta love that.
That night for dinner we went out with my roommate Jesse’s family friend. He is a mid 20’s? jew born in Austria. Besides taking us out for a very generous Austrian meal (I ate weiner schnitzel and altweiner erdaepfelsuppe) and drank a beer that was literally black in color (very heavy but very good). Most notably though, he shared with us probably the most interesting and horrific stories I have heard since I have been in Europe. He told us the story of his family (who experienced the Holocaust) and told us some of the most horrible things I have ever heard. He also told us how anti-Semitism still runs rampant in Europe (especially Austria). To be honest, to this point while I know the story of the Holocaust, it was never really real to me (if that makes sense). Hearing his stories that directly affected him hurt me inside and enraged me. One thing he told us though, that I thought I’d share, was that the custom of hitting alcoholic drink cups (or shot glasses) down on the table (or bar) before drinking was initially started by Nazis. They did this to make other Nazi’s aware of their presence in their environment. I’ve been knocking my shots down on the table for the last few years habitually… I’m now done with this.
I also got a Ciggarette burn in Vienna walking through a crowd some random kid’s cigg burnt my forearm. He nonchalantly apologized. I think there should be different degrees of apologies. His apology would’ve been appropriate for accidently stepping on my shoe. Pretty weak.
That same night I met two Austrian girls. They both had a punk rock feel to them, I guess you could call it. One of em points to my dog tags that I always wear and asks if she can try them on. I then pointed to her mouth (where she had a lip ring) and told her she could only wear my dog tags if I could try her lip ring on. This girl didn’t have the best grasp on English, so I think when I was pointing to her mouth she thought I was attempting to leverage my dogtags with a kiss. She then turned to her friend standing next to her and proceeded to make out with her. Like… it wasn’t at all what I was trying to accomplish, but I definitely wasn’t disappointed. When she finished hooking up with her friend she then pointed to my dog tags again. She probably earned them by the aforementioned act, but I held out and still said I wanted to try on her piercing. Her friend, who spoke better English then she did, then came over and explained to her what I was asking to do. She then raised her shirt and took her ring out of her belly button.
The last night in Austria we wandered around the Bermuda Triangle (which is a strip of bars in Vienna). While here we befriended midget (or maybe he was just really short) and two other business types. Somehow a congo line got started in the middle of the bar. Everyone joined in (the midget’s arms could barely reach the dudes shoulders in front of him). After partying with the midget and the two businessmen, I spoke to them and they told me that they were all from Istanbul and if we got a chance we should visit them there. One of the men gave me his business card. Nice guys, but I don’t know about that.
Upon getting home from Austria, I decided I needed some T.G.I.Fridays in my life (more specifically I needed their chicken tenders). Two of my roommates and I went after class one night and I was pumped. We sit down, order, I request ranch dressing on the side, the server says they don’t carry it. This probably isn’t a big deal to other people, but for me the ranch dressing is just as important as the tenders in my meal. They also didn’t do free refills (which I was sure they would because they do at home). Free-refills are definitely taken for granted in the States. Another thing taken for granted in the states is being able to get all of the packets of ketchup that you desire at McDonalds for free. They charge you for that here also.
The following weekend I went to Dublin, Ireland to meet up with Josh, Zack, and Conor. Though they flew in on Friday, it made more sense for me to fly in on Thursday night then meet up with them the following day. Although I was planning on having a nice, peaceful, and quiet night at the sick hotel I got for a night, it ended up not turning out like that because I met a girl in the Prague airport who was also traveling alone. She and I hit it off and went and got Dinner in Dublin together. She and I got lost at one point and were standing on the corner looking at our maps. An irish guy walked up and offered assistance. This may sound trivial, but in Europe, outgoing helpful people are hard to come by. I had many more of these friendly encounters throughout the weekend which made me like Ireland a lot. After walking around the city a little with her, I said goodnight and went back to my hotel (the Royal Marine Hotel). It was unbelievable, not only because of how nice it was, but also just being able to sleep in a room alone was fantastic. They also had a great internet connection, so I was able to get all of the music I’d been wanting to download (the best was definitely Jadakiss’s Kiss My Ass Mixtape… Fiiiiire).
The following day I met up with the boys at our hostel, we dropped off our bags, and did some exploring. We went to the Guinness Factory. I’m not a big Guinness guy, but it was still interesting walking around their factory and stuff. At the very top of the Guinness factory, there is a bar overlooking Dublin where you can receive your complementary beer (which was clearly not complementary because you pay for the tour… just wanted to clarify).
Weird/funny/gross story:
I asked a man standing at the bar if he’d mind taking a picture of all of us. He obliged and took it. He then turned to his friend and pointed my camera at his friend’s crotch region. We all gave him a courtesy laugh because he’d just taken the picture for us. Ha ha, we got it, funny. But what happened next completely surprised us. His friend unzipped his pants and actually removed his penis from his pants. Keep in mind this was in the middle of the bar area so there were plenty of people standing around. The “photographer” then snapped a photo of his friends junk and with a smirk handed me back my camera. Quite shocking. The worst part though was that I then had to go in my camera and delete the picture (which meant I had to look again). Wasn’t a very big fan of this. Pretty funny though.
The following day we went to get lunch. I haven’t really explained this yet, so before my Emergency Room story, I figure I’ll get everyone caught up. I have a life threatening allergy to any kind of peanuts or nuts. As a result of this, I had little cards written up in most of the countries’ languages I thought I’d be traveling to (Czech, Spanish, French, German, Greek, and Italian). Luckily, Irish people speak a lot of English so I didn’t think I needed a card written up in Irish. I was mistaken. At lunch I explained to our server my allergy, she said she understood. After eating my meal, I started to get one of the symptoms (itching in the back of my throat). I immediately approached the manager and wanted to make sure there were no nuts in my food. He replied, “I don’t know why your server didn’t tell you, but everything in our kitchen is surrounded by nuts. You had no business eating here at all.” Awesome. Josh and I then went to the E.R. for two hours. My symptoms stopped altogether and we were eventually able to leave and meet up with Conor and Zack at the Parliament.
After the parliament (which was awesome because we had a very well informed and interesting tour guide), we stopped at a shop and to my surprise they were selling Cadburry eggs. I bought 5 and a jug of milk and was on my way. Fuckin love those things.
We then went to a pub and watched the Dublin vs. Wales game on TV. The irish people were screaming at the top of their lungs in the bar. Men probably 3 times my age were drinking me under the table (we noticed this one old dude run through Guinness beers like they were nothing).
Our last night we went out to a club in Dun Laogerie… unbelievable night. Literally, you wouldn’t believe it.
Coming home was nice… I got all caught up in Lost before I had to catch my plane to go home.
That week was a really fun one in Prague.
Tuesday night went to all you can eat place for my birthday dinner with all of my roommates… it was unbelievable. I don’t remember ever being that full in my entire life.
Wednesday night (my 21st birthday) we pre-gamed at my apartment (and I took a shot with my mom through Skype), then went to beer factory, then mecca… I was done.
Thursday morning I woke up and threw up two times in my apartment… once in the cab… once right outside of the gate in the trashcan. The people sitting in the gate 5 feet from me didn’t really seem to appreciate it. I simply couldn’t help it.
Got into Barcelona safely and took the bus then the metro to Josh Zack and Conors apartment.
Later that night Josh and I went to my Miami friends, Lauren and Dayna, apartment. Hung out with them for a little.
We didn’t go out that night because I was still so hungover from the night before… instead we watched the new lost epp. Sick one.
Friday Conor gave us a tour of Barcelona, saw a lot of Gaudi Architecture (he showed me his first commissioned work and we ended at his last one). We saw crazy street performers and I had fun attempting to communicate with people who didn’t understand anything I was saying. Silly Spaniards.
In Spain, they speak both Spanish and Catalon … no need for English. Not many people speak it there. Little by little my Spanish came back to me though. I know people think that going to school in Miami automatically makes you a pro in Spanish…. Not true, you can get indignant if they don’t speak English and demand their manager (I’ve never done this, but you can).
That night for dinner we got tapas which was really good with a bottle of house wine. Afterwards we then went to a bar to pregame for Razzmatazz. At the bar we met some funny foreigners (Austria, Spain, Portugal, and somewhere else I don’t remember). The Spaniard insisted we speak Spanish to him while he spoke English to us. It was actually pretty cool, my Spanish isn’t as bad as I’d remembered. We then went to Razzmatazz and went crazy. It’s like a huge rave. We walk in and there’s a full band on stage and everyone’s dancing wild. We then explored and there were a ridiculous amount of rooms all completely packed out with people. Some rooms were playing hardcore house while some were playing 80’s hits. We counted 7 rooms while there, but I’m convinced there were more. It was set up like a warehouse. We lost conor early on in the night (losing someone was pretty easy to do considering how crowded it was). We then left and went back. Great night.
The next day Josh and I met up with Lauren and her friend from home to go to Tibadabu, an amusement park in Barcelona. It was great. We rode a roller coaster, went on the swings, did bumper cars, and rode a ferris wheel.
Later we went shopping and I got some sick new Nikes and a hat from Foot Locker (good thing I got something that I wouldn’t be able to get back in the States, haha).
That night we went out again and had a great night again.
When walking home from the club I noticed across the street a cute little puppy standing next to a man and a woman. I started making baby sounds at the dog and the dog started to run across the street. As this happened a car screeched to a stop right in front of the dog. I yelled “Lo Siento” (which means sorry), but the owner was furious. He started rambling in Spanish. Only phrase I made out was “NO LO SIENTO!!” I thought it was really mature of him to hold me responsible for almost killing his dog when his dog wasn’t on a leash. What a douche.
Barcelona was a lot of fun though. Great birthday weekend. Once again, it was nice to be back in Prague, though.
That week the only standout unique thing I did was I went to the Salvador Dali exhibit. It was actually perfect timing, because in the exhibit I read that Dali was inspired by Gaudi’s work (which I’d just seen in Barcelona).
That weekend I was sick, though, which was bound to happen soon enough considering how frequently I’d been going out. It worked out though because we didn’t have a trip planned that weekend, so I was able to take it easy. One cool thing I did, though, was walked through the Jewish Quarter in Prague and then found this pathway which lead up to the tallest point I’d ever been to in Prague. It overlooks the entire city. It’s a little park where there are lots of skateboarders and people with dogs. Very cool spot… I’m gonna go back there at some point to hang out.
Also that weekend my friend from school, Brett, was in town visiting his girlfriend Anna (who lives next door to us). It was nice to see him.
That week I gave a presentation on Bernie Maddoff in my Business Ethics class and I think I did very well.
Thursday morning we had a 6 oclock flight to go to Amsterdam (which meant we had to wake up at 4 o’clock). This was pretty wack, but it was a small sacrifice for the trip.
We got into Amsterdam (which is in the Netherlands) and found our Hostile (shittiest hostile ever).
Our first night we shared our 3 bunk-bed room with a South African guy named “Hank.” He was nice enough, but sharing a room with someone you don’t know is very sketchy. The 2nd night we didn’t share our room with anyone, luckily. The last night one of our friends had already left so it was just us four… or so we thought. We were woken up at 3 AM to four people entering our room. They said they had a reservation. Despite there being 2 open beds, we had paid for one of them and they clearly didn’t reserve the room for four people. I was too tired to protest, and I guess my roommates were also, so our last night there we slept with 4 random people in our room. This will be the last time I ever do anything like that again.
Back to my weekend in chronological order… after putting our stuff down at the hostile, we then found a coffee shop. Below I will list all of the coffee shops we went to throughout the weekend.
Paradise, Kadinsky, Rookies, Bulldog, Green Place, Dampkring (where scenes from Oceans 12 were shot), Abraxas, Doors Café (themed all around the band), and Grey Area.
In Amsterdam, marijuana is decriminalized. Below is the dialogue from Pulp Fiction to clear up any misconceptions you might have.
Vincent: I break it down like this: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it, and if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry it, but that doesn't really matter 'cause get a load of this, all right? If you get stopped by the cops in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them to search you. I mean, that's a right the cops in Amsterdam don't have.
Yup, so you walk into any coffee bar and they have laminated menus with the different kinds of weed they have to sell. They sell hash. They also sell pre-rolled joints. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. In the doors Café, I started talking to a guy who works there and he spoke to me for about five minutes on the dangers of cigarettes. He was preaching to the choir because I’ve never tried a cigarette in my life, but it was still amusing to hear such a laid back Dutch person speak so viciously about cigarettes. I agree with him though.
After our first coffee bar we walked around and watched a street performers comedy/escape from chains inside of a stray jacket routine for an hour. Afterwards he invited us to get a beer with him at a coffee bar he knew of. We hung out with him for a little bit, but then left to go to the Van Gogh Museum.
It was very impressive. The exhibition is so relevant because Van Gogh was from Amsterdam. The coolest thing we saw was the original “Starry Night” painting. This year was the first time in 20 years that Starry Night had been on display back in Amsterdam. Also on display was Van Gogh’s portrait of Eugene Boch and The Potato Eaters. It was really cool seeing all of that.
That night we went to an improve comedy show which was actually pretty funny. It was interactive so they appreciated suggestions from the audience. I was obnoxious and made at least two suggestions while there.
For dinner I got all you can eat ribs which were amazing. We ate at a restaurant that put the March Madness games on the big screen… on a side tangent this kid on our program organized a huge 10 dollar tournament. There are like 40 guys in it. As of right now I’m tied in second place.
The following day we did a walking tour of Prague which was interesting. Our guide told us not only about the city but also interesting facts about the Red Light District. The Red Light District is a strip where girls stand in glass rooms with beds for people willing to buy sex with them. Our guide told us that the average going rate is 15 minutes for 50 Euro (roughly $65 U.S.). He told us that the girls pay 150 Euro to rent their cube for 8 hours. After having sex for 45 minutes these girls have already made back their initial costs. I guess they also have overhead such as sheets, lubrication, toys, etc… but cmon, they’re probably making bank. Hoes is smart.
We also went to the Roor shop, which was crazy. They have some of the coolest glass I’ve ever seen. I took a picture of some of their bongs.
On Our last day, we went to the Anne Frank House. It was a very sad. That’s all I want to say on that.
After Anne Frank we went to the Heinekin Factory which, comparatively, shits on the Guinness Factory. They gave us 3 free beers and the tour itself was actually interesting.
To describe my Amsterdam trip in one word, I’d have to say, “Gluttony.” I overindulged myself in all possible ways. I ate more than I’ve ever eaten and drank more coffee then I’d ever drunk. All in all it was great, but I doubt I’ll be going back there anytime soon. When I got back to prague I passed out hard.
Following day I had a midterm so I studied all day… I do have a story though that I think represents the difference between Prague and the U.S: While I was studying in Bohemia Bagel (Prague’s premiere bagel spot), I ordered and paid for a bagel and cream cheese on an Onion Bagel and a Turkey Club on a plain Bagel. After waiting for 5 minutes I walk over to where they place the food when it’s ready and saw a bagel and cream cheese on a bagel that appeared to be onion and a turkey-like sandwich on a plain bagel. I took both, sat down, and took a bite out of the turkey-like sandwich. Within a minute or so one of the Czech workers approached me and said “That’s a turkey with swiss, and that’s a spinach bagel with cream cheese.” I first was curious who likes spinach bagels, but that was beside the point. I indicated to her that I’d already taken a bite out of the turkey with swiss. We then walked back up to the counter and I exchanged the spinach bagel with cream cheese for my Onion Bagel. The person working their then spoke in Czech to her worker for a little bit, then said “since you already took a bite from turkey with swiss, you can have that and you can have the turkey club for no charge because otherwise we’ll throw away the turkey club.” I suppose this was the most honorable thing for them to do, but it was still suprising to me. I basically got rewarded for my poor bagel identification skills. Not a great story, but I could totally see people in America taking the Turkey with Swiss back and then throwing it out simply because I didn’t pay for it. While I’d understand the logic there also, I still respect the way the Czech people handled it more.
I think my Advertising Midterm Exam went okay (my professor told me after class that he doesn’t like giving standardized tests but the curriculum makes him so as a result he’ll basically “help” the kids out at the end by modifying the midterm if it’s needed that bad). Really nice guy. He’s from Macedonia (it’s by Greece). Fun Fact about Macedonia… it’s where Mother Teresa’s from.
Sorry it took so long for me to post this, but at least I didn’t give up on it, right?
Much Love and at some point I’ll update all of my blog postings with pictures (probably no time soon).
Stay in touch… PEAAACe.
~FINK
The other day I went to McDonalds and got a large French fry (or is it fries?).
I then had to use the men’s room, so I followed the indicating signs and reached the door. Upon entering there was a woman sitting at a table with a metal bin next to her. I started to walk to the urinal, and she pointed to the compartment, then pointed to a sign underneath that said “15 crowns” (which is the equivalent of 7 and a half cents U.S.) Apparently I was supposed to pay to use the bathroom. What is this? I asked the woman (who couldn’t speak English) if this service also included wiping. She told me she didn’t speak English. Whatever. I definitely didn’t feel good about it though. And no, the payment only included the receptacle… no added benefits. Needless to say, I was pissed off.
…pun, yerp.
Umm, I don’t believe I’ve posted since I was in Vienna, Austria. Let’s go one at a time.
We took a $20 bus trip to Vienna and it was actually pretty fun. They played departed on the first leg of the trip. Additionally I was joking around with a really cute Czech waitress who worked on the bus (the joke was playing off of her limited English… if I wrote it here it’d be lost and I’d look very corny). It was based on chocolate tea…. Ignore it. Anyway, after the ride I asked her for her number and she gave it to me. We’ve been texting each other. We’ll see what happens… although if something does happen it won’t be on here. Sorry.
In Vienna we went out to a club and Austrian’s were less then friendly to us. Upon walking up to a girl I had a hand shoved in my face as a form of rejection. I simply walked up and said hi. Through her hand I asked if she knew where the bathroom was. Her open hand (still 2 inches from my face) then changed into a pointer finger, showing me where the restroom was). That’ll humble you. I eventually, after a few Austrian rejections realized (much like American girls) I had to be more subtle with my approach. Despite this, I consider Austrian’s (at least the ones I encountered with the exception of the few I hit it off with) to be unfriendly. In their defense though, I will say that while I was talking to a few girls, some Austrian guys kept coming up dancing to the girls with absolutely no regard for their reaction. I suppose this would make any girl well guarded.
The following day we went sight-seeing. We first went to the Parliament, but the tour didn’t start for an hour and a half. As a result, we went ice skating. Videos are up on facebook. I pulled out my back. My athleticism definitely is demonstrated here. Lots of fun though.
We then went to the Parliament and got a tour. The tour given by a bilingual guide who first spoke in German, then English. In one part of the tour as she spoke in German, I wandered into the other room and got a picture sitting in an official looking chair. She later took us into the room and told us that the chair I had sat in (which she clearly didn’t know) was where the president of the provinces sat and was strictly prohibited for anyone else to sit in.
After our tour, we went on a wine tasting with girls we had met during the tour (who also study abroad in Prague). Videos of that are up on Facebook too. The best wine I had tried tasted literally just like Honey. Mad good.
After this we went to “Haus Der Muzik” or House of Music. This was cool because Vienna is an extremely musically rich city and I was able to learn about those famous composers born there (namely Mozart and Strauss). My favorite quote of Mozart’s was (this is me paraphrasing) “It is a great misconception to this that I do not work hard on each of my musical creations. I put in great time and effort into every piece of music I touch.” Gotta love that.
That night for dinner we went out with my roommate Jesse’s family friend. He is a mid 20’s? jew born in Austria. Besides taking us out for a very generous Austrian meal (I ate weiner schnitzel and altweiner erdaepfelsuppe) and drank a beer that was literally black in color (very heavy but very good). Most notably though, he shared with us probably the most interesting and horrific stories I have heard since I have been in Europe. He told us the story of his family (who experienced the Holocaust) and told us some of the most horrible things I have ever heard. He also told us how anti-Semitism still runs rampant in Europe (especially Austria). To be honest, to this point while I know the story of the Holocaust, it was never really real to me (if that makes sense). Hearing his stories that directly affected him hurt me inside and enraged me. One thing he told us though, that I thought I’d share, was that the custom of hitting alcoholic drink cups (or shot glasses) down on the table (or bar) before drinking was initially started by Nazis. They did this to make other Nazi’s aware of their presence in their environment. I’ve been knocking my shots down on the table for the last few years habitually… I’m now done with this.
I also got a Ciggarette burn in Vienna walking through a crowd some random kid’s cigg burnt my forearm. He nonchalantly apologized. I think there should be different degrees of apologies. His apology would’ve been appropriate for accidently stepping on my shoe. Pretty weak.
That same night I met two Austrian girls. They both had a punk rock feel to them, I guess you could call it. One of em points to my dog tags that I always wear and asks if she can try them on. I then pointed to her mouth (where she had a lip ring) and told her she could only wear my dog tags if I could try her lip ring on. This girl didn’t have the best grasp on English, so I think when I was pointing to her mouth she thought I was attempting to leverage my dogtags with a kiss. She then turned to her friend standing next to her and proceeded to make out with her. Like… it wasn’t at all what I was trying to accomplish, but I definitely wasn’t disappointed. When she finished hooking up with her friend she then pointed to my dog tags again. She probably earned them by the aforementioned act, but I held out and still said I wanted to try on her piercing. Her friend, who spoke better English then she did, then came over and explained to her what I was asking to do. She then raised her shirt and took her ring out of her belly button.
The last night in Austria we wandered around the Bermuda Triangle (which is a strip of bars in Vienna). While here we befriended midget (or maybe he was just really short) and two other business types. Somehow a congo line got started in the middle of the bar. Everyone joined in (the midget’s arms could barely reach the dudes shoulders in front of him). After partying with the midget and the two businessmen, I spoke to them and they told me that they were all from Istanbul and if we got a chance we should visit them there. One of the men gave me his business card. Nice guys, but I don’t know about that.
Upon getting home from Austria, I decided I needed some T.G.I.Fridays in my life (more specifically I needed their chicken tenders). Two of my roommates and I went after class one night and I was pumped. We sit down, order, I request ranch dressing on the side, the server says they don’t carry it. This probably isn’t a big deal to other people, but for me the ranch dressing is just as important as the tenders in my meal. They also didn’t do free refills (which I was sure they would because they do at home). Free-refills are definitely taken for granted in the States. Another thing taken for granted in the states is being able to get all of the packets of ketchup that you desire at McDonalds for free. They charge you for that here also.
The following weekend I went to Dublin, Ireland to meet up with Josh, Zack, and Conor. Though they flew in on Friday, it made more sense for me to fly in on Thursday night then meet up with them the following day. Although I was planning on having a nice, peaceful, and quiet night at the sick hotel I got for a night, it ended up not turning out like that because I met a girl in the Prague airport who was also traveling alone. She and I hit it off and went and got Dinner in Dublin together. She and I got lost at one point and were standing on the corner looking at our maps. An irish guy walked up and offered assistance. This may sound trivial, but in Europe, outgoing helpful people are hard to come by. I had many more of these friendly encounters throughout the weekend which made me like Ireland a lot. After walking around the city a little with her, I said goodnight and went back to my hotel (the Royal Marine Hotel). It was unbelievable, not only because of how nice it was, but also just being able to sleep in a room alone was fantastic. They also had a great internet connection, so I was able to get all of the music I’d been wanting to download (the best was definitely Jadakiss’s Kiss My Ass Mixtape… Fiiiiire).
The following day I met up with the boys at our hostel, we dropped off our bags, and did some exploring. We went to the Guinness Factory. I’m not a big Guinness guy, but it was still interesting walking around their factory and stuff. At the very top of the Guinness factory, there is a bar overlooking Dublin where you can receive your complementary beer (which was clearly not complementary because you pay for the tour… just wanted to clarify).
Weird/funny/gross story:
I asked a man standing at the bar if he’d mind taking a picture of all of us. He obliged and took it. He then turned to his friend and pointed my camera at his friend’s crotch region. We all gave him a courtesy laugh because he’d just taken the picture for us. Ha ha, we got it, funny. But what happened next completely surprised us. His friend unzipped his pants and actually removed his penis from his pants. Keep in mind this was in the middle of the bar area so there were plenty of people standing around. The “photographer” then snapped a photo of his friends junk and with a smirk handed me back my camera. Quite shocking. The worst part though was that I then had to go in my camera and delete the picture (which meant I had to look again). Wasn’t a very big fan of this. Pretty funny though.
The following day we went to get lunch. I haven’t really explained this yet, so before my Emergency Room story, I figure I’ll get everyone caught up. I have a life threatening allergy to any kind of peanuts or nuts. As a result of this, I had little cards written up in most of the countries’ languages I thought I’d be traveling to (Czech, Spanish, French, German, Greek, and Italian). Luckily, Irish people speak a lot of English so I didn’t think I needed a card written up in Irish. I was mistaken. At lunch I explained to our server my allergy, she said she understood. After eating my meal, I started to get one of the symptoms (itching in the back of my throat). I immediately approached the manager and wanted to make sure there were no nuts in my food. He replied, “I don’t know why your server didn’t tell you, but everything in our kitchen is surrounded by nuts. You had no business eating here at all.” Awesome. Josh and I then went to the E.R. for two hours. My symptoms stopped altogether and we were eventually able to leave and meet up with Conor and Zack at the Parliament.
After the parliament (which was awesome because we had a very well informed and interesting tour guide), we stopped at a shop and to my surprise they were selling Cadburry eggs. I bought 5 and a jug of milk and was on my way. Fuckin love those things.
We then went to a pub and watched the Dublin vs. Wales game on TV. The irish people were screaming at the top of their lungs in the bar. Men probably 3 times my age were drinking me under the table (we noticed this one old dude run through Guinness beers like they were nothing).
Our last night we went out to a club in Dun Laogerie… unbelievable night. Literally, you wouldn’t believe it.
Coming home was nice… I got all caught up in Lost before I had to catch my plane to go home.
That week was a really fun one in Prague.
Tuesday night went to all you can eat place for my birthday dinner with all of my roommates… it was unbelievable. I don’t remember ever being that full in my entire life.
Wednesday night (my 21st birthday) we pre-gamed at my apartment (and I took a shot with my mom through Skype), then went to beer factory, then mecca… I was done.
Thursday morning I woke up and threw up two times in my apartment… once in the cab… once right outside of the gate in the trashcan. The people sitting in the gate 5 feet from me didn’t really seem to appreciate it. I simply couldn’t help it.
Got into Barcelona safely and took the bus then the metro to Josh Zack and Conors apartment.
Later that night Josh and I went to my Miami friends, Lauren and Dayna, apartment. Hung out with them for a little.
We didn’t go out that night because I was still so hungover from the night before… instead we watched the new lost epp. Sick one.
Friday Conor gave us a tour of Barcelona, saw a lot of Gaudi Architecture (he showed me his first commissioned work and we ended at his last one). We saw crazy street performers and I had fun attempting to communicate with people who didn’t understand anything I was saying. Silly Spaniards.
In Spain, they speak both Spanish and Catalon … no need for English. Not many people speak it there. Little by little my Spanish came back to me though. I know people think that going to school in Miami automatically makes you a pro in Spanish…. Not true, you can get indignant if they don’t speak English and demand their manager (I’ve never done this, but you can).
That night for dinner we got tapas which was really good with a bottle of house wine. Afterwards we then went to a bar to pregame for Razzmatazz. At the bar we met some funny foreigners (Austria, Spain, Portugal, and somewhere else I don’t remember). The Spaniard insisted we speak Spanish to him while he spoke English to us. It was actually pretty cool, my Spanish isn’t as bad as I’d remembered. We then went to Razzmatazz and went crazy. It’s like a huge rave. We walk in and there’s a full band on stage and everyone’s dancing wild. We then explored and there were a ridiculous amount of rooms all completely packed out with people. Some rooms were playing hardcore house while some were playing 80’s hits. We counted 7 rooms while there, but I’m convinced there were more. It was set up like a warehouse. We lost conor early on in the night (losing someone was pretty easy to do considering how crowded it was). We then left and went back. Great night.
The next day Josh and I met up with Lauren and her friend from home to go to Tibadabu, an amusement park in Barcelona. It was great. We rode a roller coaster, went on the swings, did bumper cars, and rode a ferris wheel.
Later we went shopping and I got some sick new Nikes and a hat from Foot Locker (good thing I got something that I wouldn’t be able to get back in the States, haha).
That night we went out again and had a great night again.
When walking home from the club I noticed across the street a cute little puppy standing next to a man and a woman. I started making baby sounds at the dog and the dog started to run across the street. As this happened a car screeched to a stop right in front of the dog. I yelled “Lo Siento” (which means sorry), but the owner was furious. He started rambling in Spanish. Only phrase I made out was “NO LO SIENTO!!” I thought it was really mature of him to hold me responsible for almost killing his dog when his dog wasn’t on a leash. What a douche.
Barcelona was a lot of fun though. Great birthday weekend. Once again, it was nice to be back in Prague, though.
That week the only standout unique thing I did was I went to the Salvador Dali exhibit. It was actually perfect timing, because in the exhibit I read that Dali was inspired by Gaudi’s work (which I’d just seen in Barcelona).
That weekend I was sick, though, which was bound to happen soon enough considering how frequently I’d been going out. It worked out though because we didn’t have a trip planned that weekend, so I was able to take it easy. One cool thing I did, though, was walked through the Jewish Quarter in Prague and then found this pathway which lead up to the tallest point I’d ever been to in Prague. It overlooks the entire city. It’s a little park where there are lots of skateboarders and people with dogs. Very cool spot… I’m gonna go back there at some point to hang out.
Also that weekend my friend from school, Brett, was in town visiting his girlfriend Anna (who lives next door to us). It was nice to see him.
That week I gave a presentation on Bernie Maddoff in my Business Ethics class and I think I did very well.
Thursday morning we had a 6 oclock flight to go to Amsterdam (which meant we had to wake up at 4 o’clock). This was pretty wack, but it was a small sacrifice for the trip.
We got into Amsterdam (which is in the Netherlands) and found our Hostile (shittiest hostile ever).
Our first night we shared our 3 bunk-bed room with a South African guy named “Hank.” He was nice enough, but sharing a room with someone you don’t know is very sketchy. The 2nd night we didn’t share our room with anyone, luckily. The last night one of our friends had already left so it was just us four… or so we thought. We were woken up at 3 AM to four people entering our room. They said they had a reservation. Despite there being 2 open beds, we had paid for one of them and they clearly didn’t reserve the room for four people. I was too tired to protest, and I guess my roommates were also, so our last night there we slept with 4 random people in our room. This will be the last time I ever do anything like that again.
Back to my weekend in chronological order… after putting our stuff down at the hostile, we then found a coffee shop. Below I will list all of the coffee shops we went to throughout the weekend.
Paradise, Kadinsky, Rookies, Bulldog, Green Place, Dampkring (where scenes from Oceans 12 were shot), Abraxas, Doors Café (themed all around the band), and Grey Area.
In Amsterdam, marijuana is decriminalized. Below is the dialogue from Pulp Fiction to clear up any misconceptions you might have.
Vincent: I break it down like this: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it, and if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry it, but that doesn't really matter 'cause get a load of this, all right? If you get stopped by the cops in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them to search you. I mean, that's a right the cops in Amsterdam don't have.
Yup, so you walk into any coffee bar and they have laminated menus with the different kinds of weed they have to sell. They sell hash. They also sell pre-rolled joints. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. In the doors Café, I started talking to a guy who works there and he spoke to me for about five minutes on the dangers of cigarettes. He was preaching to the choir because I’ve never tried a cigarette in my life, but it was still amusing to hear such a laid back Dutch person speak so viciously about cigarettes. I agree with him though.
After our first coffee bar we walked around and watched a street performers comedy/escape from chains inside of a stray jacket routine for an hour. Afterwards he invited us to get a beer with him at a coffee bar he knew of. We hung out with him for a little bit, but then left to go to the Van Gogh Museum.
It was very impressive. The exhibition is so relevant because Van Gogh was from Amsterdam. The coolest thing we saw was the original “Starry Night” painting. This year was the first time in 20 years that Starry Night had been on display back in Amsterdam. Also on display was Van Gogh’s portrait of Eugene Boch and The Potato Eaters. It was really cool seeing all of that.
That night we went to an improve comedy show which was actually pretty funny. It was interactive so they appreciated suggestions from the audience. I was obnoxious and made at least two suggestions while there.
For dinner I got all you can eat ribs which were amazing. We ate at a restaurant that put the March Madness games on the big screen… on a side tangent this kid on our program organized a huge 10 dollar tournament. There are like 40 guys in it. As of right now I’m tied in second place.
The following day we did a walking tour of Prague which was interesting. Our guide told us not only about the city but also interesting facts about the Red Light District. The Red Light District is a strip where girls stand in glass rooms with beds for people willing to buy sex with them. Our guide told us that the average going rate is 15 minutes for 50 Euro (roughly $65 U.S.). He told us that the girls pay 150 Euro to rent their cube for 8 hours. After having sex for 45 minutes these girls have already made back their initial costs. I guess they also have overhead such as sheets, lubrication, toys, etc… but cmon, they’re probably making bank. Hoes is smart.
We also went to the Roor shop, which was crazy. They have some of the coolest glass I’ve ever seen. I took a picture of some of their bongs.
On Our last day, we went to the Anne Frank House. It was a very sad. That’s all I want to say on that.
After Anne Frank we went to the Heinekin Factory which, comparatively, shits on the Guinness Factory. They gave us 3 free beers and the tour itself was actually interesting.
To describe my Amsterdam trip in one word, I’d have to say, “Gluttony.” I overindulged myself in all possible ways. I ate more than I’ve ever eaten and drank more coffee then I’d ever drunk. All in all it was great, but I doubt I’ll be going back there anytime soon. When I got back to prague I passed out hard.
Following day I had a midterm so I studied all day… I do have a story though that I think represents the difference between Prague and the U.S: While I was studying in Bohemia Bagel (Prague’s premiere bagel spot), I ordered and paid for a bagel and cream cheese on an Onion Bagel and a Turkey Club on a plain Bagel. After waiting for 5 minutes I walk over to where they place the food when it’s ready and saw a bagel and cream cheese on a bagel that appeared to be onion and a turkey-like sandwich on a plain bagel. I took both, sat down, and took a bite out of the turkey-like sandwich. Within a minute or so one of the Czech workers approached me and said “That’s a turkey with swiss, and that’s a spinach bagel with cream cheese.” I first was curious who likes spinach bagels, but that was beside the point. I indicated to her that I’d already taken a bite out of the turkey with swiss. We then walked back up to the counter and I exchanged the spinach bagel with cream cheese for my Onion Bagel. The person working their then spoke in Czech to her worker for a little bit, then said “since you already took a bite from turkey with swiss, you can have that and you can have the turkey club for no charge because otherwise we’ll throw away the turkey club.” I suppose this was the most honorable thing for them to do, but it was still suprising to me. I basically got rewarded for my poor bagel identification skills. Not a great story, but I could totally see people in America taking the Turkey with Swiss back and then throwing it out simply because I didn’t pay for it. While I’d understand the logic there also, I still respect the way the Czech people handled it more.
I think my Advertising Midterm Exam went okay (my professor told me after class that he doesn’t like giving standardized tests but the curriculum makes him so as a result he’ll basically “help” the kids out at the end by modifying the midterm if it’s needed that bad). Really nice guy. He’s from Macedonia (it’s by Greece). Fun Fact about Macedonia… it’s where Mother Teresa’s from.
Sorry it took so long for me to post this, but at least I didn’t give up on it, right?
Much Love and at some point I’ll update all of my blog postings with pictures (probably no time soon).
Stay in touch… PEAAACe.
~FINK
Monday, February 16, 2009
2/16/09
Whatupp,
Being the extremely worldly individual that I am, I decided I’d visit some museums while I’m in Europe. It was Valentine’s day so I thought I’d go somewhere relevant to the Holiday. My first stop? The Sex Museum. A few new friends I’d met the day before and I took a trip there and WOW was I impressed. I saw some contraptions that I swear I’ve seen in Brookstone or Sharper Image before… just maybe for different uses. Remember the full leather body suit in the end of Pulp Fiction? They had a few similar ones… but also had them in the assless variety. The funniest thing though, I thought, was they had a huge sheet with a hole around the crotch region. I couldn’t help but think of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry David, upon receiving approval from his wife as an anniversary present, found a foreign woman who would have sex with him (don’t recall her nationality right now). He was informed that he had to cut a hole in a sheet and bring it with him to the room if he wanted to have sex with her because of her unique belief system. This was clearly untrue and lead to an awkward exchange (as it usually does in this show).
I digress.
Anyway, that was funny… I took pictures and might post a few of them here.
On a related topic, another interesting fact I found out is that Jewish humor isn’t thought to be as funny abroad as it is in the U.S. I went to lunch with my family friend (who lives here) and his Czech girlfriend Saturday (the 14th) and the topic of Curb Your Enthusiasm came up. My family friend told me that he watched an episode with a European once and they didn’t laugh at all and after the episode simply said “that show makes me feel uncomfortable.” It’s interesting because I think that uncomfortable situations are probably my favorite source of laughter.
Quick Story.
I’m walking down Charles Bridge with a few of my friends (it’s on my way to class) and I was feeling especially obnoxious that day. On the bridge there are a considerable amount of “free lance workers” earning their living (such as artists selling their paintings, caricature artists, trip informants, and my favorite: an older man standing in a carnival uniform with a stuffed animal monkey resting on top of a huge box that he cranks to make music come out). You must understand, the rest of the categories I mentioned at least involve some degree of skill. Even the trip informants must, at the very least, be knowledgeable about the vacations they are trying to sell. But here’s this guy standing there cranking a wheel making music come out of it. It wasn’t even like he had a real monkey to motivate people; just a fake one. Anyway, I found this to be hilarious because I’d already seen him a few times at the same spot, so clearly this was a career choice. So we’re walking on the bridge towards the end of the day and I see the man leaving his designated spot (apparently this was when his work day came to a close), and I start screaming and pointing at him “OH MY GOD MUSTVE BEEN A HARD DAY AT THE OFFICE!!! WOW, GOOD THING THAT MONKEYS THERE, THAT WAS DEFINITELY THE DEAL BREAKER!!” … then the old man starts screaming at me in Czech and shaking his fist. I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but this unassuming old man totally turned threatening. The conclusion to this story was that I felt guilty about it because even though it was kinda funny… it just didn’t sit well with me. So a few days later I walked up while he was in his “cubicle” and gave him a nice little tip. He definitely earned it. Picture of the guy is below.
Back to my lunch with the family friends… we went to an Afghani restaurant and it was actually really good. Our family friend asked our server where in Afghanistan he was from and the server told us (I don’t remember where). My family friend then replied, “oh, I’d like to visit there sometime… is it nice?” And the server stone faced replies “No... we are at war” and just stares at my family friend. After about a 3 second silence the servers like “so what can I get you to eat?”
Soooooo awkward.
I told our family friend and his girlfriend about my encounter (that I described in my last post) at the night club with the Czech Girl. This couple is young by the way… mid 20’s? Anyway, I was more curious in finding out how Czech and European women in general react to Americans hitting on them in night clubs. She said that there definitely are stereotypes about Americans (like they’re fat, stupid, and materialistic) but if I approach nicely and respectably they’d be receptive.
Tangential funny joke about the American stereotypes and how I fit into them…
My roommates asked me if I wanted to join a gym with them.
That was the punch line.
Back to the lunch.
So I was very relieved to hear that I could start hitting on European women… that night I went out and was 3-0 (nothing notable happened with them, but everyone I walked up to were very nice and we spoke and danced a bit).
This weekend my roommates and I are traveling to Vienna Austria, which should be sick. We also booked our spring break trip, which is just going to be in Italy. I also booked a trip to meet up with Josh, Zack, and Conor in Dublin and I booked a trip for my birthday weekend to go to Barcelona (should be wild). My roommates and I put together a tentative schedule for where we will be every weekend and because I don’t know whose reading this… I’ll list where I’m visiting but not their designated time slots.
Italy (a few different cities), Dublin, Barcelona, Krakau, Berlin (maybe Munich?), London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Greece.
I might be missing one or two because the list is not right in front of me… but I’m pretty excited. There were a few trips I wanted to make that I don’t think I’ll be able to fit in (like Interlocken, South of France, Turkey, and Budapest), but it is what it is.
We now have internet in our room which is awesome (but videos – like lost – keep buffering). I’ll catch up eventually.
Something else that’s cool… the guy I spoke about in my first post from Prague who is from Cape Town and Nigeria listened to my CD (“Days of Reason”). If you don’t have it, go cop it. And by cop It I mean I’ll give you one when I return to the States or I’ll upload it on a mixtape website or something. Anyway, the dude liked my cd a lot and he and his friend who supposedly raps also want to record some tracks over my CD. I don’t know how good they are, but I just think it’d be cool to have some dudes not from America hop on and see what happens.
Since I’ve been here I’ve only stayed in on Sunday nights. Gonna keep pushin.
Oh, and Sunday morning I went with a few friends to the illest brunch ever. I had French toast, a bagel and cream cheese, eggs, coffee, and an orange juice. I know it sounds standard but over here it’s hard to come by.
I think I’m going to Post this now then upload my pictures. Since I can edit my blog posts, I figure I’ll attach relevant photos (and irrelevant ones) to my posts after the fact. Stay in touch.
Much Love to everyone,
Fink
Being the extremely worldly individual that I am, I decided I’d visit some museums while I’m in Europe. It was Valentine’s day so I thought I’d go somewhere relevant to the Holiday. My first stop? The Sex Museum. A few new friends I’d met the day before and I took a trip there and WOW was I impressed. I saw some contraptions that I swear I’ve seen in Brookstone or Sharper Image before… just maybe for different uses. Remember the full leather body suit in the end of Pulp Fiction? They had a few similar ones… but also had them in the assless variety. The funniest thing though, I thought, was they had a huge sheet with a hole around the crotch region. I couldn’t help but think of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry David, upon receiving approval from his wife as an anniversary present, found a foreign woman who would have sex with him (don’t recall her nationality right now). He was informed that he had to cut a hole in a sheet and bring it with him to the room if he wanted to have sex with her because of her unique belief system. This was clearly untrue and lead to an awkward exchange (as it usually does in this show).
I digress.
Anyway, that was funny… I took pictures and might post a few of them here.
On a related topic, another interesting fact I found out is that Jewish humor isn’t thought to be as funny abroad as it is in the U.S. I went to lunch with my family friend (who lives here) and his Czech girlfriend Saturday (the 14th) and the topic of Curb Your Enthusiasm came up. My family friend told me that he watched an episode with a European once and they didn’t laugh at all and after the episode simply said “that show makes me feel uncomfortable.” It’s interesting because I think that uncomfortable situations are probably my favorite source of laughter.
Quick Story.
I’m walking down Charles Bridge with a few of my friends (it’s on my way to class) and I was feeling especially obnoxious that day. On the bridge there are a considerable amount of “free lance workers” earning their living (such as artists selling their paintings, caricature artists, trip informants, and my favorite: an older man standing in a carnival uniform with a stuffed animal monkey resting on top of a huge box that he cranks to make music come out). You must understand, the rest of the categories I mentioned at least involve some degree of skill. Even the trip informants must, at the very least, be knowledgeable about the vacations they are trying to sell. But here’s this guy standing there cranking a wheel making music come out of it. It wasn’t even like he had a real monkey to motivate people; just a fake one. Anyway, I found this to be hilarious because I’d already seen him a few times at the same spot, so clearly this was a career choice. So we’re walking on the bridge towards the end of the day and I see the man leaving his designated spot (apparently this was when his work day came to a close), and I start screaming and pointing at him “OH MY GOD MUSTVE BEEN A HARD DAY AT THE OFFICE!!! WOW, GOOD THING THAT MONKEYS THERE, THAT WAS DEFINITELY THE DEAL BREAKER!!” … then the old man starts screaming at me in Czech and shaking his fist. I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but this unassuming old man totally turned threatening. The conclusion to this story was that I felt guilty about it because even though it was kinda funny… it just didn’t sit well with me. So a few days later I walked up while he was in his “cubicle” and gave him a nice little tip. He definitely earned it. Picture of the guy is below.
Back to my lunch with the family friends… we went to an Afghani restaurant and it was actually really good. Our family friend asked our server where in Afghanistan he was from and the server told us (I don’t remember where). My family friend then replied, “oh, I’d like to visit there sometime… is it nice?” And the server stone faced replies “No... we are at war” and just stares at my family friend. After about a 3 second silence the servers like “so what can I get you to eat?”
Soooooo awkward.
I told our family friend and his girlfriend about my encounter (that I described in my last post) at the night club with the Czech Girl. This couple is young by the way… mid 20’s? Anyway, I was more curious in finding out how Czech and European women in general react to Americans hitting on them in night clubs. She said that there definitely are stereotypes about Americans (like they’re fat, stupid, and materialistic) but if I approach nicely and respectably they’d be receptive.
Tangential funny joke about the American stereotypes and how I fit into them…
My roommates asked me if I wanted to join a gym with them.
That was the punch line.
Back to the lunch.
So I was very relieved to hear that I could start hitting on European women… that night I went out and was 3-0 (nothing notable happened with them, but everyone I walked up to were very nice and we spoke and danced a bit).
This weekend my roommates and I are traveling to Vienna Austria, which should be sick. We also booked our spring break trip, which is just going to be in Italy. I also booked a trip to meet up with Josh, Zack, and Conor in Dublin and I booked a trip for my birthday weekend to go to Barcelona (should be wild). My roommates and I put together a tentative schedule for where we will be every weekend and because I don’t know whose reading this… I’ll list where I’m visiting but not their designated time slots.
Italy (a few different cities), Dublin, Barcelona, Krakau, Berlin (maybe Munich?), London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Greece.
I might be missing one or two because the list is not right in front of me… but I’m pretty excited. There were a few trips I wanted to make that I don’t think I’ll be able to fit in (like Interlocken, South of France, Turkey, and Budapest), but it is what it is.
We now have internet in our room which is awesome (but videos – like lost – keep buffering). I’ll catch up eventually.
Something else that’s cool… the guy I spoke about in my first post from Prague who is from Cape Town and Nigeria listened to my CD (“Days of Reason”). If you don’t have it, go cop it. And by cop It I mean I’ll give you one when I return to the States or I’ll upload it on a mixtape website or something. Anyway, the dude liked my cd a lot and he and his friend who supposedly raps also want to record some tracks over my CD. I don’t know how good they are, but I just think it’d be cool to have some dudes not from America hop on and see what happens.
Since I’ve been here I’ve only stayed in on Sunday nights. Gonna keep pushin.
Oh, and Sunday morning I went with a few friends to the illest brunch ever. I had French toast, a bagel and cream cheese, eggs, coffee, and an orange juice. I know it sounds standard but over here it’s hard to come by.
I think I’m going to Post this now then upload my pictures. Since I can edit my blog posts, I figure I’ll attach relevant photos (and irrelevant ones) to my posts after the fact. Stay in touch.
Much Love to everyone,
Fink
Thursday, February 12, 2009
FIRST POST FROM PRAGUE
Yoo,
Today is Friday February 6th, and I have started writing this at 7:11 P.M. (meaning it is 1:11 P.M. on the East Coast). I'm currently hanging out in my apartment with my roommates. I share a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom spot with 5 other guys. It's kinda tight, but hey, so is a (insert inappropriate joke here).
ummmm... roomates are mad chill, I chill with 4 of em mostly. We've been here the last 2 days and went out the last 2 nights (pub crawl tonight). Wednesday night, the day we got in, we went out to this club,"Mecca" and there was a lot of Americans there... everyone was just trying to meet everyone and it was cool. In the club upstairs they played House music; downstairs they played Pop 90's music. For example, I heard "Mambo Number 5" by Lou Bega. Hillarious. Also I almost got in a fight accidently over this Czech girl. Here's what happened...
Me (to girl sitting alone): Hey... you look like your having a lot of fun sitting alone over there.
Her: *random language babblings*
Me: Oh that's cool... I don't speak English either, what are-
::I get shoved from the side::
Random Czech Guy (with 2 kids my size backing him): *angry random language babblings*
Me: Woooah, is that your girl
Random Czech Guy's Boys: We're sorry, we're sorry (broken english accent)
Random Czech Guy: *probably threatening my life in Czech*
::I bitch out and walk away::
End of Story
I mean, she was pretty hot so i guess i respect him being protective.. but come on now. 1 Of the biggest over reactions of 2009, next to Obama being elected. Ouuuuuch.
The flight here was awesome. They give you your own tv with select programming. I read my book for a little bit and sipped on some wine. Thought the wine would knock me out for the flight.. instead i got drunk and was obnoxiously laughing to myself while watching Family Guy and The Office... I didn’t, however, laugh at My Name is Earl or Everybody Hates Chris. That was either because they weren’t funny or because i got self conscious once my drunk died out and I started noticing the dirty looks I was getting. Anyway I didn’t sleep from my flight which technically got into Heathrow England at 7 o’clock in the morning their time (2 o’clock our time). Needless to say I still have had jet lag really bad for the last few days... been taking mad naps.
We're going out now so I'll continue my update tomorrow if i get a chance.
Whatup... it's 9 oclock at night on Saturday February 7th and we just got back from Tesco (Prague's Target equivalent) and got all the necessary bullshit (I made sure I could find ping pong balls and solo cups for ruit... and a panini press... and ipod speakers)
I think i finally now have my bearings about the city at least a little bit... I can find basic shit. We live right next to the ill bar that a lot of people go to, called Chapeau Rouge. Like, location wise we're killing it. Our apartments been really good for pre-games and whatnot thus far and the bar I just mentioned is the spot if nothing's going on, also.
Our internet sucks so i'll probably have to go to an internet cafe to connect, but I'll make it work.
Be back soon
Now it's 1 oclock Monday Feb. 9th, sorry all of these have all been so sporadic, but I've been on the go like crazy. I'm currently in my Criminal Law class so this will be a short post, but I'm gonna go to an internet cafe later today (between classes) to do a full post on everything that's happened up to today. Then i'll start posting chronologically.
Oh... and my Criminal law teacher looks like Sean Penn. That's it. Paaaace.
Now it’s Wednesday February 11, at 9 PM. I just got back from my fifth class (and last class). Yup… I only have classes Monday through Wednesday. They all seem pretty chill though, not too strenuous I don’t think. They’ve been cool for meeting people though.
2/12/09 – 6:56
As far as us going out thus far, these are where we’ve gone: Mecca, Chateau Rouge, a 5 story club, Beer Factory, Kross Club, and this bar where I wanted to kill myself (it was like heavy metal house music, terrible combo). I’ve been out every night since I’ve been here except for Sunday night, and it’s been equally crazy every night.
At Kross Club I learned of a sick international rapper named Bow Wave. I didn’t understand what he was rapping about but it sounded tight… I guess you could compare him to Twista.
My getting lost count is currently at 3, but every time I get lost I learn new parts of the city which is good. I’m like John Locke the way I’m starting to run this shit (bad joke). Speaking of which, I’m mad behind on television and movies and everything. I guess that’s good cuz it means I’m out doin my thing, but still, I might go to an internet café tomorrow to get caught up. I have google maps on my phone but it only helps so much. It’s better that I actually understand the city though, I think.
A few days ago I want to Chapeau Rouge and had a beer with a half Nigerian half Cape town dude. He had a very thick accent but it was still cool hearing what his life is like as compared to where he came from. After our first beer I tried to bounce and he insisted on buying a second round so we could keep talking. He told me he was in the movies “Wanted” and “Jumpers.” In wanted he’s the black dude who works in the factory who gives a high five to Common (or Com-own as he pronounced it). Mad nice guy though. I’ve really been trying to meet different people from different cultures while I’ve been here. I exchanged info with a girl from Portugal a few nights ago.
My roommates and I are currently trying to schedule our trips now. For spring break we’re gonna go to Greece for 4 days then go to Italy for the remaining 7 days. My roommate JP knows Greece in and out, and has family there so it should be a crazy trip.
Today I got McDonalds… the double cheeseburger wasn’t as good as America’s. French Fries were the same (for anyone who cares).
They also give you change in dollars here… I hate change with the passion of Christ. One of the few cultural differences I am not at all open to here.
I try to stay in the American loop as much as I can… I found out about the Grammy winners as they happened, the Chris Brown beat down, and U.S. and World news (I’m also still tracking XM/Sirius to watch my investment slowly but surely dwindle… it’s all good.)
I am allowed to receive text messages to my phone, though so please shoot me a message from time to time if you’d like (if you don’t have BBM). While I’m having the time of my life out here, I still miss everyone.
I met up with Ariel Garber last night at a bar and run into Zach Loss out at clubs and shit frequently.
Interestingly enough, Jewish geography doesn’t work as well out here as it does in other areas (which is great… makes you actually have to feel someone out, not just drop names to see how they respond). Everyone I’ve met though (for the most part) has been really cool and down for whatever.
Much love to everyone whose reading this. I miss you and hit me up on skype if you wanna talk or whatever. My name is “afink34” on there. My following posts will be much smaller than this, because I’ll try to break them up based on time of post, rather than compiling them all together like this. Anyway, I’ll be posting pictures soon and I’m sorry I can’t include any inappropriate stories on here… but you know how that goes.
Everyone stay up and I’ll post soon.
God Is Love,
Rev Run
… sorry, another bad joke.
-Fink
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Intro
Whats really really good, I'm Fink. I don't think an introduction is all that necessary because the purpose of me creating this is not only for my pre-existing friends and family, but also for my own records. With that said, if you dont know me... keep reading, you sketchy son of a bitch.
The majority of my blogs on here (at least for the next few months) will be from from Europe, which is because I am studying abroad this semester in Prague. I know very little about European culture and even less about Czech culture. As a result I'm destined to explore like one of Paris Hilton's sex toys: I could wind up anywhere... foreign or local (i plan to entrench myself in every nook and cranny I discover). I've already purchased a language guide so i can try to break down the communication barrier. I don't want to be that kid who mixes up the words hotel with moose or haircut with soup. Or even worse, shower with gas chamber. HOW EMBARASSING!
When I write this, I will try to keep you, the reader, as entertained as I possibly can. As I lead my day I will make notes in my phone of funny/interesting situations so that I don't forget to insert it (once again, like Paris's toy) so that the world can see. I will, however, need to be a bit conservative with what I release because I will be directing everyone that I know to this site... in other words, "Hi Mom and Dad." Despite this, I plan to write here at least once every 2 weeks so I have a solid account of how Prague was when I eventually leave. I also for Chhhhhhannukah received a camera, so I will also try to post media on here too (only the classiest).
Well, i'm pretty tired so I'm out like trying to make money in a ponzi scheme this year (don't be upset, there's always 2010). Holler at me.
Paaaace.
The majority of my blogs on here (at least for the next few months) will be from from Europe, which is because I am studying abroad this semester in Prague. I know very little about European culture and even less about Czech culture. As a result I'm destined to explore like one of Paris Hilton's sex toys: I could wind up anywhere... foreign or local (i plan to entrench myself in every nook and cranny I discover). I've already purchased a language guide so i can try to break down the communication barrier. I don't want to be that kid who mixes up the words hotel with moose or haircut with soup. Or even worse, shower with gas chamber. HOW EMBARASSING!
When I write this, I will try to keep you, the reader, as entertained as I possibly can. As I lead my day I will make notes in my phone of funny/interesting situations so that I don't forget to insert it (once again, like Paris's toy) so that the world can see. I will, however, need to be a bit conservative with what I release because I will be directing everyone that I know to this site... in other words, "Hi Mom and Dad." Despite this, I plan to write here at least once every 2 weeks so I have a solid account of how Prague was when I eventually leave. I also for Chhhhhhannukah received a camera, so I will also try to post media on here too (only the classiest).
Well, i'm pretty tired so I'm out like trying to make money in a ponzi scheme this year (don't be upset, there's always 2010). Holler at me.
Paaaace.
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