Thursday, August 5

Prague

Because we booked our hostel so late we were only able to get 2 nights at one hostel and needed to stay our third night at a different hostel. So, this morning we had to get up by 10:00 and check in a few minutes down the road at the Pension Tara. The whole thing was slightly annoying, but we put up with it (see: being friends with Grodman). We dropped off our luggage and headed for the Lennon Wall, armed only with two cans (BM, G, Bedford) of spray paint.
After a few minutes of planning, we went to work. In front of a small crowd (see: TB Devil Rays games) Shelman and I tagged the Lennon wall, forever leaving our orange and yellow marks in Prague. Three quarters of the way through, however, we ran out of paint and not wanting to buy another can, were forced to leave our artwork unfinished.
Later, we made our way up towards the Prague Castle, stopping for a hot-dog (see: Smith, of course) lunch along the way. We walked around the castle, through its many courtyards, and even into a mini vineyard on the Castle grounds. The small grapes in the vineyard were extremely sour to eat and left much to be desired. [Fun Fact: the Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.]
After hiking back to our hostel, Shelman and I passed out hard (see: Akshay Buddiga, Spelling Bee, 2004). When naptime was over, we went downstairs for dinner and then to Starbucks to connect to the Interweb and update you, dear readers. Tomorrow at 7:00 am it’s off to Vienna for the day, then we’ll take an overnight train to Venice and see Italy for the first time. Suggestions? Questions? Ideas? Leave ‘em in the comments section, folks!

Pictures: Us telling the Castle guard to RELAX; A view of the city from the castle (vineyard in the background); St. Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle (Variety is the spice of life, KWIS?); Me tagging Lennon Wall; Max and I with our (semi) finished products

Wednseday, August 4th

Prague

Hey all, it’s Shelman. I also go by Max if you didn’t know, but most recently Lord of the Dance. That name came from the Americano dominance on the dance floor in Prague. A pub crawl was in store for us on Wednesday night where we hopped from bar to bar with 80 other fellow bar hoppers. The first three bars were cave-like, in that they were underground and bricked out with green laser lights. However, none compared to the final club with 5 floors and a different style of music on each floor, called Karlovy Lázně. The night was spent going up and down floors and busting new moves that Europe has never experienced – the nugget, for example. Girls ranged from British to American to Australian to Czech to Danish. The breakdown:
British – very cute, but a strong attitude, which was either good or bad
American – really cool…just kidding really boring
Australian – accent is amazing, all around primo (study abroad spring 2011 yeeee)
Czech – not big on dancing and became very offended when I broke wind which due to the new food here, was a common occurance
Denmark – LOVED American and Aussies, right oh
“We do not speak Americano” was a crowd favorite and grew on sneaky Pete and I . However, American music was overwhelmingly popular so the songs were of no surprise. Sheltod out.

Sneaky Pete here supplementing Shelman (you may know him as Max or, more recently, Lord of the Dance).
A few things we saw today: the Prague Astronomical clock (pretty cool), Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge, and the Lennon Wall. Fun Fact: the Lennon wall, a symbol of youthfulness and freedom, has been covered with John Lennon-related graffiti and lyrics from Beatles songs since the 80’s. Anybody who would like to can tag the wall at any time, a pretty cool concept (see also: 5 Pointz in Brooklyn).
Some things we ate: Sandwiches at Bohemia Bagels (thanks Cassidy for the recommendation), and Czech Beef Goulash, which is entirely more appetizing than it sounds. Sorry, Queen Stickums, we couldn't find doner kabobs but we'll keep our eyes peeled in Vienna.
An adventure we had: Getting a new camera. The camera that we had was pretty old and didn’t take great pictures (see: pictures on our blog), plus Max didn’t bring the charger and we were running out of battery. So, we went downtown to Tesco, the European all-in-one store. While I walked around looking for spray paint (for the Lennon wall), Shelman was asking around for a camera. When I came back, the scene was hilarious. Max, already tired from a long day of travel, was being "helped" by a salesman who wouldn't know if something bit him in the ass if he knew something bit him in the ass. Anytime Max asked the dude a question he would huddle up with two other salesmen, discuss with them, and then he would return more clueless than he was before. Max, just wanting a camera already (is that so much to ask?!) started getting more and more frustrated, which only flustered the saleman more. Like Galen's beard, this cycle kept building on itself until it was unbearable. In the end, Shelman, like a bad doctor, had no patience for the dude's shenannagans and we left (not before taking a picture, of course).


Pictures: Old town square at night; My Beef Goulash and Shelman's chicken with potatoes (see: last night's dinner as well); Tesco salesman; Shel with a smoke; Fog waterfall at Karlovy Lázně

Tuesday, August 3

Prague

The 7-hour train from Munich to Prague was one with 6-person cabins, rather than individual seats and boy was it packed. Max and I couldn’t find a cabin with two seats together so we had to split up. I’m not sure who exactly Max sat with, but there is zero chance that they were smellier than the family in my cabin. These guys could have gone pro in making people uncomfortable. I almost lost it when they closed the door, ending any chance for air circulation for the next 6+ hours. And, as if that wasn’t enough, their choice of snack for the train ride was sunflower seeds. Now you may be asking, Peter, I love sunflower seeds, what’s the big deal? Well, young reader, as you may or may not know, while the inside of sunflower seeds can be eaten, the outer shell must be spat out. Do you know what an entire grocery bag of regurgitated sunflower seeds smells like?
Anyways, once we got off the train, I decided it was well time for a prank. Shelman had gotten off the train a few doors ahead of me and was looking the other way. I walked briskly up to him, bumping him as I went past and tried to pickpocket him, for which I almost got a punch to the face. Worth it, though, to see Max snap into action so quickly (truly a beautiful specimen).
On the walk up to our hostel we stopped for sandwiches ($2.00 a piece—you can’t find that in America). Prague, with its narrow streets, few cars, old buildings, and many shops was an instant favorite of ours. We had dinner outside at a traditional Czech restaurant on what can only be described as a swing-set table (the whole thing was on a platform and rocked back and forth). I had rabbit thigh and Czech potato dumplings, and Max had half his weight in Czech beer.
That night, based on my sister’s recommendation, we went to a place called the Beer Factory—a pub where every table has a tap that keeps track of how much beer the table has had, and tables can race against each other. Cool in theory, but when we got there the place was empty. I’ve been to more hoppin’ Waffle Houses at 2:00 am than this place. Put another way, the most interesting part of that pub was the amount of vomit in the bathroom sink (apparently beef is very popular in Prague).
We ditched that joint for another place, Sudu. We stopped briefly at a bench to rest and figure out where we were going when a lady interrupted us (see: Kanye West, 2009) asking us something in Czech (listen lady, if it’s our bench you want you will never have it. We had fives.) Anyways, when we finally found our way to Sudu we were impressed; the club was designed like a series of underground tunnels and had music playing in several caverns. Unfortunately, since neither Shelman nor I are 40 and slightly overweight, we didn’t fit in with the 7 other people that were in the entire place and dipped out early.
We made our way to the Chapeau Rouge where we met up with a French girl and two French guys from our hostel. The place was bumping—a nice bar upstairs and a sweet dance floor downstairs where we showed everyone our moves (see: Captain Falcon). We stayed out late into the night dancing, drinking, and ended up having a great first night in Prague.


Pictures: Shelman peeing with some statues that are also peeing; Us with guards on the Charles bridge (see: Jobs I never want to have); Us with our 3 French amis; My rabbit thigh and potato dumplings, Shelman's teriyaki chicken and potatoes; Us at dinner on the swinging chair-table.

Sunday, August 1

Munich

The 6:30 wake up was tough this morning, but knowing it meant we would be out of Brussels soon made it easier. Of course, we hadn’t even made it out of the hotel before the hotel clerk, Mr. Butt (lol), tried to dupe us into paying for our room twice (nice try, noob, but you will never get my money!) Anyways, once we got rid of that gypsy, we were on the way to Munich to see old family friends.
We hadn’t taken 10 steps off the train in Munich before Bridgette came running towards us, overjoyed that we had made it. Bridgette and Chris Buyer are friends of my parents. My grandpa, dad, and aunts have all stayed with their family in Germany like Shelman and I were doing, and they have all stayed with our family in America.
After getting a sandwich (mozzarella, tomato, and lettuce on a fresh baguette) we toured a few of the many castles in Munich. We walked through the English Gardens to a beer garden and Chris got a round of a mixed beer/lemonade drink, a summertime special in Germany, which was perfect for the hot day. Chris also got us a pretzel that was so big, even a man with a hippopotamus jaw would have trouble eating it (see: http://bit.ly/9W2j8p).
When we got to the Buyer’s beautiful home, hot showers and dinner were waiting. Because Bridgette was at the opera for the night, Andy and Domi had cooked fish, chicken, and potatoes, with tzaziki sauce. We ate outside in the backyard—everything was delicious. We ate, talked, laughed, and drank until it was too dark to see, then went up to bed.

Pictures: Me and Brigitte at the Munich Gates, A waterfall in the English Gardens, Max Chris and I at the Herrenchiemsee Castle, Shelman and I at the same place, Us in the Buyer's back yard after dinner