Prague Part I: On Orientation, Eating and Drinking

Prague Part I: On Orientation, Eating, and Alcohol
So, to recap a little bit, we set off from the Pilsner Brewery after enjoying our first real taste of Czech food and headed off to whatever fate awaited us in the City of Prague.

Prague is a city of 1.4 million people that sits aside the Vitava River. Its dominating feature is Prague Castle, which sits atop a hill that overlooks the city. According to reliable sources (Wikipedia, and every tour guide we’ve had that was alive before 1989), in the last ten years Prague has undergone something of a revival. These has resulted in the development of a number of new nightspots, clubs, and restaurants, and a large increase in the amount of English that is spoken in the Czech Republic.

However, none of these nice facts were evident when we arrived at our home for the next four months, Masarykova Kolej. Masarykova is a definite example of Soviet era architecture, both inside and out. The building is roughly boxed-shaped, with the front and sides of the box on five floors given over to student housing and the back given over to a small hotel. The exterior is something like slate gray. The interior is some sort of mix between a maze and an insane asylum. The halls are all a pale white color, with no distinguishing features except the holes people have apparently put into the walls in frustration. To Americans, whose sense of direction is largely based on landmarks, this is madly confusing.

And once Jake and I finally found our room, we were in for what I sincerely hope is the shock of the trip. The room was tiny, and there was one bed. After a moment of stunned silence, we figured out that the bed was actually two that had been pushed together. We also realized that if we pulled them apart we would basically block all of our shelf space. Worse in some ways was the bathroom. There was no shower head anywhere in bathroom, and several fixtures had some sort of mold built up in them. Despairing about the livability of our housing, and the fact the we were in the ass end of no where, as far from the entrance to the dorm as was imaginable without being in hotel, we wandered downstairs and joined a rather large group of people that was getting ready to head out into Prague to find some food

Leading the group once again was the ever present Adrian. Adrian had apparently either already been to Prague, or was just an incredibly fast learner, because he lead seven or eight of us into the subway, and into downtown Prague. We happened to arrive at Prague’s Old City Square just in time to catch the hourly showing of the city's gigantic Coco Clock. Slightly amused by this, we headed off down the narrow medieval streets of Prague. After waking for about 15 or twenty minutes we found a small pizza place near Wenceslaus Square.

While eating there we managed to discover one of the differences between Czech and US cultures. Kate, one of the girls in group, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, didn’t really want pizza, so she ordered some bread. We didn’t eat most of it, so we asked to have it bagged up. We ended up being charged for three loaves of bread. So, having spent a couple of crowns(Czech Money) more than we planned to, we head back to the dorm.

Jack and I didn’t really want to go back to our room, so we wandered down the hallway, looking to see if anyone else had found a better way to organize their room. As it turned out, Ryan, one of Jake’s friends, and his roommate had decided to relocate one of the beds into the attached kitchen. This freed up some more space for the one that remained in the living space. Jake and I decided that was probably a good plan, and so I now have a pretty much private room in the kitchen.
With that sorted out, and feeling a little more at home, Jake and I headed to bed, and slept…

The next two days were orientation in Prague. The first day, Monday, was an AIFS lead tour of the important sites in Prague. We started at the dorm, took the subway to Charles University’s main building, which is located in a small square about two or three blocks from old city center. Also in the square are the Faculty of Dance, the National Theatre and the Jewish Cemetery. From the Main Building we walked back to the Old City Square, after passing by Prague Library and the Czech National Library. From the Old City square we walked through more medieval streets to reach the center of New Town, Wenceslaus Square, where AIFS, and ECES(Eastern and Central European Studies, the program that lets us study at Charles University) have their offices.).

From AIFS office, which is next to an old camera store I may have to check out once I learn enough Czech, if ever, we headed off to what I think will be a very important part of life here, Tesco. Tesco is Target and Safeway rolled into one, it has clothes, food, bedding, toys and electronics, toiletries, and cookware. Down the street are the big three phone companies in Europe, O2, Vodaphone and T-Mobile. During the stopover at Tesco, it seemed like just about everyone got a cheap pre-paid Vodaphone number for use in the Czech Republic(don’t try to call me on it, as the phone will give out after about ten seconds).

After Tesco, we had a brief orientation session at the Main Building. Marketa, the head of the program in Prague, talked to us for an hour or so and explained some of the differences between the Czech Republic and the US, warned us to guard our personal possessions against pickpockets, and explained some of the activities that as part of AIFS we could undertake, including trips to the Opera, the Ballet, and other parts of Europe, and concluded by taking our passports so that the Czech Police could confirm that we were legally in the Republic.

The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful. A group of us, including myself, Jake and Adrian ended up walking down to the circle near our dorm, and having dinner in two different places, some went to a small sandwich shop across from a KFC (I swear I have seen more of them here then in the United States) and the rest of us, including me, Kate(from the night before) Adrian, Ryan(from down the hall), and two girls from South Carolina, Allie and Jordan, hit up a more authentic Czech restaurant down the street, which was surprisingly affordable(about 10 dollars for a meal, bread, and beer). That done, we headed back to the dorm, and slept, and it was good.

The next day was the ECES orientation, which was held at the Czech National Library, in what they called the Hall of Mirrors, or something like that(apparently the Czechs like the French a lot, they stole Versailles and the Eiffel Tower, more on that later). This orientation was rather less informative then the one before, though the ECES people did outline some nice volunteer activities that I may have to check out(planting trees, or speaking English primarily). From the Orientation, Adrian, Kate, Stef (a girl from Notre Dame), Allie, and myself head off to the AIFS office to sign up from some activities, to Tesco and Vodaphone so that Adrian and Allie could get working phones, and to an adopter store so that Kate and Stef could plug things from the US in. Along the way to AIFS, we stopped for some Czech fast food, Sausages. Now, keep in mind that Sausages ARE NOT Hot Dogs, like you would get in the states. For one thing they taste a hell of a lot better(I don’t if maybe there is something different in them, because there two things you don’t want to see being made…laws and sausages) and they are a hell of a bigger, and come wrapped in baggets and are generally a tasty treat. After a stopover at AIFS(damn that camera store calling me like a siren), and Tesco(no adapters, sorry), and a visit to the adapter store(thank god my parents gave me some, cause these were like twenty bucks, each) we headed back to the dorm once again.

While me, Adrian, Kate, Allie and Stef had been wandering around Prague, Jake, and Ian Saha, a fellow student of history from Texas, had been on a quest of their own. They spent most of the day wandering around Prague looking to spend the stipend that AIFS gives us to purchase some guitars, which they were finally successful at doing, after what was apparently four hours of fruitless searching. Along they way, they had discovered that one stop down from us on the metro was a Tesco Express, which is essentially a grocery store. Determined not to spend any more money(the guitars cost a pretty penny, even in crowns) me, Allie, Jake and Ian, headed to Tesco and bought the ingredients to make stir fry(while, Ian and Jake found ingredients, I sought of watched and was generally useless). With these in hand, we headed back to the dorm, and with Jake directing, Ian slicing, and me generally trying to avoid being useless or in the way, we managed to make up a pretty mean stir fry, for about 100Kc( roughly $5).

Having filled our bellies, we decided to seek some drinks (trans. find some booze). This turned out to be surprisingly easy, as much to our surprise, there was a bar in the basement of the dorm (so much for no drinking in the dorms). Furthermore, drinks at the bar were pretty damn cheap (20 crowns, or about a dollar for a beer). And then, it was night, and we slept…

Next: Prague Part II: On Day trips and Language barriers.