prahaliz

Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to...

2005-12-12T12:52:06Z

London. Now here is a city where I will live one day. As long as I have a decent job, because it drained my bank account. JJ was amazing, as was Greg and all the other kids, most of whom were AU kids I knew vaguely, like Wes and Katie and such. I went to the Tower of London on Friday, after arriving late Thursday. The Tower was cool as hell, with crazy Beefeater tour guides and ravens that bite and the crown jewels and lots of towers. We got Chinese food later with Andrew Jones, who replenished all the gay I've been missing this whole semester. And the food was amazing.

Then, Saturday, we went to the Portobello Street Market and then got amazing Indian food at Brick Lane, so spicy I almost died, Wes too, as he got the same evil vindaloo. Then, shopping for the amazing Christmas party, including 44 beers and 8 ciders and a dozen mince pies. And the Christmas party was great, with all the kids getting superlatives and Todd reading the How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and flaming pudding, and Santa Claus, with a Guinness. There was chicken and pasta and latkes, (oh my?) and so much dessert, then we all went out and had a decent time at a club.

And Sunday morning we watched X Factor, then went to Harrods and then Platform 9 and 3/4 (!!!!!) Yeah London kicks ass. Anyone who wants to go back at any point, let me know.

prahaliz @ 2005-12-04T20:47:00

2005-12-05T02:03:31Z

Ran this weekend to Florence with Connie, saw the David and the Birth of Venus, the Duomo and other beautiful things. Good city, got good food, Florentine steak, and will go back again. Made bruschetta with Connie back in Rome, then ran back to Prague.

Not bird flu, but good guess

2005-11-29T12:36:25Z

So one of the girls in our program, in my dorm, had this weird rash that started on her hands and traveled pretty much everywhere on her body in a few days, just kinda looked like bug bites. She went to the emergency room but they couldn't help her so she went to a physician today and the prognosis?

Ready?

This one is good.

Fleas.
...

Okay. Well, I invite you all to go onto Facebook and peruse the names of the girls in the "I bet you wish you were going to Prague in the fall like us" or whatever our group is called, and guess which girl. Hint: Not me and not my roommate. And please dear god don't let this be something that spreads down hallways.

prahaliz @ 2005-11-29T05:08:00

2005-11-29T10:23:07Z

And we are honorary Guinness brewers.

http://guinnessstorehouse1.bitmove.tv/bitmove/guinnessstorehouse1/receive.jsp?uid=E7A77EFBD8D9FE67C5A2E33F6978CBC5

prahaliz @ 2005-11-28T08:58:00

2005-11-28T14:12:56Z

Oh well, I accidentally posted my Dublin post on the other journal. And I'm sick and staying home and watching Felicity and eating slimjims. Prague is cold.

A'dam

2005-11-20T20:14:17Z

SO this weekend was amazing as usual. I met Nagle in Amsterdam on Thursday after adventures in the expansive airport trying to figure out where I would meet someone if I had to in an unfamiliar city, but she found me eventually.

Now I will admit ignorance on the subject of European cities--I did not expect Amsterdam to be so beautiful, to be near the ocean, or to have canals. I guess I've ignored most of what I should have picked up about it. Our hostel was call Shelter Jordan (no, not Jordaan) and was a few minutes from Dam Square and Westerkerk. It was actually a Christian youth hostel, but really the only drawback I noticed was the lack of a bar. It was clean, safe, and so friendly and we had dinner there Saturday night-- we tried to have some Friday, but they were having something called a Hunger Banquet that we were pretty sure did not involve food. Great shelter, a little cultish, but I'd go there again. http://www.shelter.nl/content/view/18/47/ Oh, and they had the Creation story written on the cafe walls and they gave out free copies of the Gospel of John, of which we have several copies in several languages.

On the first night we took a boat tour that involved a recorded British man giving us almost interesting bits of information, like "On your left you will see two houses with the same facade. They are called the Twin Sisters" Well, not the best example, but whatever. Good tour overall and while we were on it we saw our next destination--An enormous floating pagoda http://www.seapalace.nl/ This place could not be ignored. So we set off on a desperate hunt once we were returned to the start of the tour. This was the most impressive Chinese place I've ever seen. So we walked through the rain and wind and such asking Asian people where the Sea Palace was and we finally found it, very close to the central station. It was also the most expensive Chinese restaurant I've ever seen, but also very good and gigantic and beautiful. I maintain that we should have gotten the 17 course meal for 20 euro each, which actually was the smallest of the fancy meals, since the others were like 30 courses for 50 euro, with sharkfin soup included. But we got rice and pork and that was great.

We asked a guy in a store with beer if we could drink on the street and were sad when he said no, and then he said just to wrap newspaper around it and no one would care. So that was our tradition before going out at night.

Then we set out for the mythical Red Light District of which I've heard so much. And we found it by following red lights, imagine. And wow this place was awesome and surreal. Girls in windows, the most attractive ones doing their nails or talking on cell phones. Later a hippie girl warned us not to take pictures because the whores threw homemade napalm at her. She was most likely an overreactive idiot, but whatever, good story. A nice black man also told me and Nagle that we were a very nice lesbian couple, which was flattering.

We hit up a decent flea market wheer Nagle found black boots to replace the ones she had with her, meaning I finally own a pair of boots, my first ever, since she sent hers home with me. So I'm excited, plus I found a couple cute skirts.

So we spent a few days doing this kind of stuff and found several Irish barrs, a coffee shop, and Anne Frank's house, not to mention a film student taking pictures of the same cute kids running down a hill that I was, who also happened to look like Kurt Cobain. Also, on Saturday, we went to Zaanse Schans, a cute little village tourist thing just outside the city, kinda like Plimoth Plantation. http://www.zaanseschans.nl/EN.html They had a dairy farm and free cheese and windmills.

And today we got up, ate breakfast, checked out, and then played Monopoly before going to the airport.
Amsterdam was excellent. Now Dublin next weekend.

Benatky

2005-11-07T17:30:33Z

This weekend, headed off for the longest bus ride ever to Venice. Stopped Thursday night in Ceske Krumlov, a smaller version of Prague, beautiful, definitely going back. Venice was amazing obviously, and everything that I was hoping it would be. This was the one place in Europe I wanted to visit while here and now it is done. I will definitely be going back and living there. We saw the requisite things, and played with pigeons in St. Mark's square, so if we get bird flu, you know why. Only one full day there, so damn, I need to get back as soon as possible. Expensive, and couldn't find much good food, and didn't get to take a gondola ride or see the ghetto, so there is much to be done next time.

The Heiss!

2005-10-30T20:48:07Z

So I had The Heiss in town, actually, she's reading on my bed right now. We have been out to eat so many delicious times. She got here on Thursday and we went out drinking a little and ate at the Willow Tree around the corner and it was delicious as always, with the crack addict waiters and bartenders. On Friday we visited the castle and cathedral, though the castle was mostly closed for some official important function, oh well, next time.

On Friday nigh we ate at the most ridiculous place, a Brazilian barbecue place called Ambiente, which was amazing because there was more meat than I've ever seen ever wow, like five kinds of beef and chicken, and chicken hearts, and squid, and duck, and pork and really anything you can think of, grilled pineapple, coming nonstop. Total gluttony, brilliant. We then promptly passed out because of the massive intake of protein.

On Saturday, we first went to U Dragouna across the street for some real Czech food, which was obscenely filling and great, with the requisite delicious pancakes with fruit and whipped cream. Then we went to the Halloween party at Nebe, a pirate and a Bohemian, and we did not get back til 7 am, very cold and tired.

Today, we ran around shopping for last minute souvenirs and went to this awesome Thai place called Maly Buddha, and had the best room in the house, in a kind of shrine on cushions, and the food was typically unbelievable and we had fried bananas and pineapples for dessert, and delicious drinks and soup. So good and so cheap.

We went to a kind of flea market Saturday to look for cheap good pashminas and other such items, and this fair was hard to get to, but absolutely huge once we found it. I will definitely be going back, So, long story short, The Heiss departs tomorrow morning to return to her Roman villa, and it was most excellent to have her here, I would recommend that everyone invite The Heiss over.

Visiting and Visitors

2005-10-26T20:28:34Z

SO JJ came last week with Greg and that rocked and we drank much beer and such, really it was just great to have friends here.

Then visited Connie, that involved seeing the Pieta, the Sistine Chapel, several incorruptibles, Rome from the roof of St. Peter's and the roof's own souvenir shop, and the Colosseum. She and I made amazing awesome handmade spinach pasta and red pepper sauce and tiramisu. SO good. Much wine was drunk and Saturday night was like freshman year, man.

Now home again, Connie's coming here tomorrow to see this city, which temperature-wise doesn't compare to Rome, but it's still cool.

Next country

2005-10-17T13:12:47Z

This weekend ten of us went to Vienna--I will say I liked Berlin more, but Vienna had some crazy architecture. We mostly just wandered around taking pictures, and drinking in the hsotel's excellent bar. A few of us went to the National Art Museum and it was the most impressive museum I've ever seen, with the most ridiculously Habsburg architecture too, and a crazy Egyptian collection, among other things. Also, we visited the cathedral at night and managed to come upon a mass inside it for the hunting season, complete with protesting hippies having a Die-in outside. Very DC.

Also, JJ is in town, which RULES. And Greg, he's cool too. Going out again tonight. And Rome this weekend to see The Heiss.

Berlin!

2005-10-10T13:09:13Z

I was in Berlin this weekend and I was not prepared for how cool that city is! I was picturing some drab and boring rebuilt communist metropolis, but the architecture is amazing and there are so many people. We saw the Reichstag, which was beautiful and huge and had this crazy rotunda where you can walk around. The hostel we stayed in was comfortable and had a great bar where I met this kid from the Netherlands who liked such good music that he knew TV on the Radio. The city was still cheap compared to DC, which was fine with me. I went to this one restaurant called Oxymoron, great name in itself, where I had dates wrapped in bacon, so good. We went to Checkpoint Charlie, where American and communist tanks faced off at the Berlin Wall and almost started World War III, got my passport stamped. Saw the wall, walked all around the main stretch of downtown. The metro/tram/train system is the most confusing setup I've ever seen, though, and I'd need to live there to understand it. And damn I want to know German, and live in Berlin. So yeah, kids, go there.

Pilsnerfest!

2005-10-03T19:59:48Z

So on Saturday, me and a few people went to the city of Plzen (where the US liberated Czechoslovakia in WWII, incidentally) and attended Pilsnerfest 163, the 163rd anniversary of the discovery of pilsner beer, which occurred here. This fest was essentially a tiny little Oktoberfest which was awesome and extremely cheap. We toured the brewery--at one point in the underground area where beer used to be brewed extensively, our tour came across a group of guys dressed as knights or something playing cards and our tourguide stopped and started talking and we started taking pictures. And then one of the bearded giant men grabbed me, and sat me on their table and pretty much fell on me and pretended to do nasty things to me while the other guys fought with swords. It was traumatizing, a video of it was made by one of the kids here, and then they gave us free "healthy" unpasteurized traditionally made beer. Yeah so that was entertaining. Oh and there were rides, bumper cars and some sort of twister ride that was called the Crazy Polyp where we sat in the cars at the ends of the arms of a demonic octopus that shouted "I am the master voice" and made animal noises during the ride. It was weird. And I bought honey liquor, which is sweet and good. We ate in the biggest pub in the world, which was surprisingly cheap and good. So Pilsnerfest rocked.

Then on Sunday I went to the Czech symphony for the last night of their autumn festival. We heard assorted things, I have the program, it was pretty good, but then I'm not great at sitting through things. They did Strauss' Alpine Symphony and some cello thing by Dvorak, and something else. It was worth going to.

And Thursday we all went to a club called Nebe that was tiny, in a Romanesque cellar (yeah architecture class) and played "indie" music all night, so we danced to Franz Ferdinand and the Arcade Fire and The Cure and we're going again this week.

In other news, Prague has totally entered a rainy season. Blah!

Okay, JJ in particular, post or email me as to when you're coming here.

Before I forget

2005-09-27T13:44:50Z

Last Thursday went with my politics class to the Vitkov memorial in Prague, which is not usually open to the public. It consists of an enormous horse statue on the top of a giant hill and a large monument behind it. It doesn't really have a purpose now, as far as I can tell, as it used to be fore early 20th century soldiers, then Communists, then the Czech version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, who was actually known, but I guess they pretended. It was beautiful and weird and huge and the guide called it a kind of Communist church, which was an oxymoron, but appropriate. The guide didn't see a lot of people, so he let us see where a famous Communist named Kelement Gottwald was embalmed, under the spot where his coffin was in the main hall. It was exceedingly creepy and I have a lot of pictures, more explanation later. The guide also let us on the roof, which he definitely wasn't supposed to do. It had the most awesome view of Prague yet, as the hill is very high and close to the TV tower, which is in the background of some of my photos.

Also, Saturday we all went wiht Jan and Zuzana to the Terezin concentration camp, which was amazing. It was originally a fortress under Empress Maria Terezia, but it was of course taken over by the Nazis and later the Communists. The town of Terezin was used as ghetto and actually the day we went they were having quite a nice and out of place town fair with a blow up giraffe moonbounce and oompa music.

Okay and my classes are 20th Century European History, with Jan, Czech language, Contemporary Central European Politics, Czech Art and Architecture, Recent Economic Developments, and something that resembles Puzzles of Central and Eastern European Transformation and Integration. I guess I'm going to learn some economics finally in those last two, and the others will hopefully keep me busy. AU is putting a computer into this dorm so maybe I will be able to stop using my roommate's, as she has been too nice.

I have free weekend time in November and December I think, so I hope I'll be able to travel then. Any of you Europe kids, let me know when you're heading to Amsterdam because god knows I want to be with friends there.

Too much free time

2005-09-14T19:58:59Z

Our Czech class ends Friday and we have a test tomorrow, so I kind of puttered around for eight or ten hours after class ended doing nothing and avoiding studying because this will be an easy test. I went to a British store near the school called Lush http://www.lush.com which makes all sorts of interesting handmade soaps and shower gels and junk so I bought three little shower gels, one of which was named Sonic Death Monkey, which is why I bought it. I would recommend to any other Europe kids to check out this store.

Connie has given rise to my hopes by promising to visit, as has JJ. I still need to get in touch with Nagle, and con her into coming too, or visiting her somewhere. I can't wait to sleep this weekend. Sleeeep.

So at this dorm I live it there's a woman who is involved in organizing our program. Her husband teaches us history and she is the dorm mother kind of. She is 70, her name is Zuzana, and he is 85, named Jan. Laura will know what I'm talking about--Zuzana is beautiful, just barely gray past blond hair and graceful and all that and she used to be a model. So she offered me a chance to meet with a friend of hers once a week and get paid to talk so the lady can have practice in conversational English. I really don't know why she would pick me, except that maybe if a foreign speaker can understand me, then they can understand anyone. Not being one to pass up money easily, I think I'm meeting with this woman tomorrow. Otherwise, Pete and Changa and whoever else are having a taco party Friday and listening to the new Dane Cook while we cook and maybe the Family Guy movie and hopefully going to a club after.

prahaliz @ 2005-09-12T16:17:00

2005-09-12T20:28:22Z

Well, I have time to update now. Because I don't have a laptop, I'm restrained at the moment to using my roommate Lauren's laptop. I've gotten through a week of Czech class and learned to introduce myself and pronounce the language to some extent and that's about it, but it's hard language anyways, and our teacher is awesome. We went to the national opera and saw Dvorak's Rusalka, which was a version of the Little Mermaid only really sad, and long. Me and a few friends were the only ones to make it all the way through.

On Sunday, the whole group went to the town of Kutna Hora, which used to produce one third of the silver in Europe and was famous for its mines. We went down into a mine and that was fairly frightening because I've never been in such a constrained space. Afterwards we went to a kind of suburb where the Bone Chapel is, which was basically a big church decorated with bones and skulls from plague victims and such, from a very long time ago. It was eery at first, but pretty fast we all were taking pictures grinning with skulls, because honestly it's meant to mock itself. It was a very cool day.

We've a whole bunch of free AU meals at all sorts of cool restaurants. I got here like September 2nd and I only cooked my first meal today. I've never gone out to eat so much in my life. There's also a really great bar right next to our dorm with good food, cheap beer, and cool bartenders. The half of our group that is working on film and photo rather than humanities lives down the street and they have an equally cool bar next to them, along with wireless, so there are several local establishments to patronize.

We're only taking Czech class right now. The whole jetlag thing worked in my favor because I was able to redo my sleep schedule and be just fine with getting up at 7:45 everyday. So far I haven't had a day to sleep in, but I do look forward to it.

The site to see the pictures I have so far taken is
http://community.webshots.com/user/lizwinters

It just struck me that I'm really here!

2005-09-02T21:04:01Z

I'm in Prague on one of three mac laptops in a bar with free wireless if you buy a beer (27 crowns or about $1.06) and it's about 11 pm. I left 8 pm Thursday from Boston, honestly I don't want to convert time right now, I flew Boston to London, Heathrow, then seven hours of hanging out and interrupted sleep and then Prague. I managed to watch House of Wax and Lords of Dogtown on the first flight--the first is terrible except Paris Hilton is great and the second is watchable. Once I got here I found I was practically underpacked compared to other kids. The three of us who were picked up at the airport were the last three and we were late getting to dinner, so we grabbed a beer at the restaurant where everyone was meeting for the first night, and I had some kind of pork cooked in beer which was just what I needed. Then we all started to go home and stopped at the most beautiful overlook and there were fireworks going off over the skyline and this is the last time I walk anywhere here without taking my camera. So we went to this great little bar next to one of the dorms and we ordered 14 beers and we're here and it's good and I can't believe I'm here now. So who wants to hit up Oktoberfest?