vendredi, mars 04, 2005
Last (full) day in Prague
In Canada, when you order a McChicken sandwich at McD's, they ask, "do you want the combo?". In Quebec, they ask if you want the "trio". In Prague, they say "menu".
When I ordered my sandwich yesterday and the girl kept shouting "Menu?" at me, I was very confused. I thought she wanted me to read the menu, so I kept looking up at the menu and repeating "McChicken" as she kept asking me "menu?". We went back and forth a few times before I figured it out. Communication breakdown, man.
Pammy and I were a little disappointed with the Museum of Communism yesterday. It didn't seem to have a lot of stuff. The best part was a little room where they were showing video footage of various significant historical dates - like the invasion in 1968 by the Soviet Union, then the huge protest in 1989. It makes it all very real when you recognize the streets as ones you've walked on, and see people being harassed and beaten by police for no real reason. In 1969, some dude set himself on fire (and died) to protest the Russian occupation. Man.
The whole non-Communist world is still a very new thing for people here (it has been less than 20 years, after all)- they love their new freedom to choose. Unfortunately, sometimes that means having McD's and KFC setting up shop all over the place, but the place isn't too Westernized yet.
Something I am continually amazed by is the huge masses of people who are outside all the time. It's quite cold here. But people seem to not mind - retail stores have their doors propped open, there are lots of street vendors (hot dog stands and the like). And despite it being March and very far from the peak tourist season, there are a significant number of tourists in the main centers. I can't imagine how insane it gets in the summertime.
We were out late again last night. We decided to visit the Konvict Pub near our hotel, and after we finished our dinner asked our waiter to recommend a good venue for dancing somewhere nearby. He told us about Zlaty Strom, near the Charles Bridge, and said it was actually where he was going when he got off work shortly. We decided to check it out.
The club was quite nice - very trendy, but we were a little surprised when we first walked in. Downstairs on a lower level we could see four girls dancing in bikinis on a stage (a couple of them were actually topless) and that wasn't quite the type of bar we were looking for. But the club was multi-levelled and had different rooms for those of us who didn't want to watch the half-naked girls. We did sit and watch for a bit, but then found the room with the dance floor. We ordered some mojitos, requested some tunes and started dancing.
George (the waiter from Konvict) showed up with a girl-friend. I discovered pretty quickly that she wasn't his actual girlfriend when he started getting a little too friendly with me. But he was very nice and kept buying us drinks (I really enjoy the Czech rum). Some other young fellows weren't so nice, as Pammy discovered when one of them purposely dumped his drink on her back. They had been bothering her for a while (we learned how to say "fuck off" in Czech at this point), and she was furious. The bouncers showed up and escorted the punks out of the club, but not before they yelled at us and called us names in Czech (it's all Greek at that point...). Go Pammy!
So the dance clubs stay open until 6:00. The naked girls dance until 6:00. The bar continues to serve liquor until 6:00. I was loving the music (and the Czech rum - did I mention that part?). The dance floor was fun - black square tiles with different coloured lights under them, dancing in various patterns under our dancing feet. There are some nights when I love to dance, and last night was one of them. I met a dancing friend (a slightly creepy Czech dude) and we boogied for quite a while. No speaking, though. But Pammy was getting tired, and staying out until 6:00 probably wasn't our best course of action, so we headed "home" to bed around 4:30.
I was getting George to teach me some Czech phrases last night. I don't remember them precisely, but I briefly knew how to say "I speak a little Czech" and "I am from Canada". I'm better with just a few words - dekuji (thank you), prosim (please), and my new one "promi" (sorry).
Okay, this story is getting long so I'll wrap it up. We leave tomorrow morning for Amsterdam, then back to Montreal on Sunday. | ¶ 3:36 p.m.
When I ordered my sandwich yesterday and the girl kept shouting "Menu?" at me, I was very confused. I thought she wanted me to read the menu, so I kept looking up at the menu and repeating "McChicken" as she kept asking me "menu?". We went back and forth a few times before I figured it out. Communication breakdown, man.
Pammy and I were a little disappointed with the Museum of Communism yesterday. It didn't seem to have a lot of stuff. The best part was a little room where they were showing video footage of various significant historical dates - like the invasion in 1968 by the Soviet Union, then the huge protest in 1989. It makes it all very real when you recognize the streets as ones you've walked on, and see people being harassed and beaten by police for no real reason. In 1969, some dude set himself on fire (and died) to protest the Russian occupation. Man.
The whole non-Communist world is still a very new thing for people here (it has been less than 20 years, after all)- they love their new freedom to choose. Unfortunately, sometimes that means having McD's and KFC setting up shop all over the place, but the place isn't too Westernized yet.
Something I am continually amazed by is the huge masses of people who are outside all the time. It's quite cold here. But people seem to not mind - retail stores have their doors propped open, there are lots of street vendors (hot dog stands and the like). And despite it being March and very far from the peak tourist season, there are a significant number of tourists in the main centers. I can't imagine how insane it gets in the summertime.
We were out late again last night. We decided to visit the Konvict Pub near our hotel, and after we finished our dinner asked our waiter to recommend a good venue for dancing somewhere nearby. He told us about Zlaty Strom, near the Charles Bridge, and said it was actually where he was going when he got off work shortly. We decided to check it out.
The club was quite nice - very trendy, but we were a little surprised when we first walked in. Downstairs on a lower level we could see four girls dancing in bikinis on a stage (a couple of them were actually topless) and that wasn't quite the type of bar we were looking for. But the club was multi-levelled and had different rooms for those of us who didn't want to watch the half-naked girls. We did sit and watch for a bit, but then found the room with the dance floor. We ordered some mojitos, requested some tunes and started dancing.
George (the waiter from Konvict) showed up with a girl-friend. I discovered pretty quickly that she wasn't his actual girlfriend when he started getting a little too friendly with me. But he was very nice and kept buying us drinks (I really enjoy the Czech rum). Some other young fellows weren't so nice, as Pammy discovered when one of them purposely dumped his drink on her back. They had been bothering her for a while (we learned how to say "fuck off" in Czech at this point), and she was furious. The bouncers showed up and escorted the punks out of the club, but not before they yelled at us and called us names in Czech (it's all Greek at that point...). Go Pammy!
So the dance clubs stay open until 6:00. The naked girls dance until 6:00. The bar continues to serve liquor until 6:00. I was loving the music (and the Czech rum - did I mention that part?). The dance floor was fun - black square tiles with different coloured lights under them, dancing in various patterns under our dancing feet. There are some nights when I love to dance, and last night was one of them. I met a dancing friend (a slightly creepy Czech dude) and we boogied for quite a while. No speaking, though. But Pammy was getting tired, and staying out until 6:00 probably wasn't our best course of action, so we headed "home" to bed around 4:30.
I was getting George to teach me some Czech phrases last night. I don't remember them precisely, but I briefly knew how to say "I speak a little Czech" and "I am from Canada". I'm better with just a few words - dekuji (thank you), prosim (please), and my new one "promi" (sorry).
Okay, this story is getting long so I'll wrap it up. We leave tomorrow morning for Amsterdam, then back to Montreal on Sunday. | ¶ 3:36 p.m.
