A Blog about Prague

(hahaha I'm so funny.)

So on Friday morning I packed up my things and rode my bike to the hospital at 5:15 am to catch the airport shuttle to Malmö. And a few stops later Simon got on! He and Juan and some others I didn't know were going to Prague then Vienna and Budapest for the weekend. So it was a nice coincidence to see him and talk to him on the way to the airport. After getting there everything went smoothly. It was just a long wait. The Malmö airport is very small, maybe like 12 gates tops. But the cool thing was these totally glass rooms in the terminal that are for smoking in. It was interesting. Like a little smoking closet.

As we waited to get on the plane (there are no assigned seats with WizzAir so everyone kind of crowds up) there was a group of Swedish men in front of me. DRUNK Swedish men. I found out later they were a bachelor party and had stayed up all night drinking (flight at 7:45) in preparation for their ridiculous weekend of raucous fun in Prague, apparently. And they were ridiculous. So walking down the ramp they were slurring...i Mean asking me about Indiana or something and behind me I found out there was a guy from Boston. He sat next to me and we talked the whole time. He's a computer programmer named Mike who's living in Malmö and working from home. He just moved to Sweden in July or something. So that was fun.

Kara came to meet me at the airport and we took the bus back into Prague where she gave me a map, we had a pastry thing that was filled with something black and delicious, and left me for class. I went to the free tour meeting point. The tour was AWESOME. I learned so much history and cool things and had so many good photo ops. I met a Kiwi named Stephanie who is traveling for like 8 weeks all around Europe. She was really nice and we exchanged emails and walked around for a while after the tour. So, anyone who is traveling, check out Sandeman's newEurope tours. They are free and super awesome. The tour guides work only for tips so they have to be good.

Then I left Stephanie and walked up to the national museum for some pictures and then back down to catch the tram to Kara's dorm. There I took a nap and shower and we went to a club/bar place near the Old Town Square. I forget what it was called. Mostly because everything in Czech is nearly unpronounceable. It was a good time with dancing and stuff. Seeing what another culture's social scene is like is always a surprise. In Prague, people were just dancing alone and the dress was much much more casual than in Sweden. There wasn't so much dancing just with people you know. People were genuinely fun. The downside is smoking indoors. It has been I don't know how long since I was in a bar that allowed smoking. (It was probably the Lew, lol.) So my clothes all smelled like smoke and my hair too the next morning. It was not pleasant.

On Saturday Kara and I took the tram to town and walked up to the castle/cathedral. St. Vitus' Cathedral is INSANE. It is just...immense. I don't how how to properly describe it without sounding ridiculous. You walk in and it just keeps going up. Hundreds of feet, that's no exaggeration. So that was VERY cool. We walked back down, got some street food on the way to have for lunch/that mid-afternoon meal that I've become so fond of. That night was Kara's friend Elsa's birthday and her friend and boyfriend were also visiting (from Munich). It turns out they go to the same school as Bianka and Antonia and all those people (small WORLD, for real.) It's funny because there are only ten students from that school studying in Lund, which is a small small percentage. How crazy is that? Really.

So that night we ate dinner (delicious chicken with bleu cheese and potato pancakes) at a student pub and then went to Karlovy Lazne, which is this ridiculous five story club that is supposedly the biggest club in Europe or something. It was pretty fun, for the most part. But it is SO big everyone kept getting separated. And I got creepily creeped on by a old fat man in a pink shirt and maroon tie. Ewww. I shiver just remembering it. But my favorite floor was the "retro" floor that had a light up dance floor and played things like songs from Grease and other throwback-y sorts of songs that everyone can sing along with. We stayed there until 2:30 and I had to get on the tram to go to the airport (flight back at 6 am) at about 3:15am. So I got McDonald's and started my long journey to the airport and home. I made it back to Lund and to my bike and eventually home, where I slept all day without moving.

It was a good weekend.

No internet :-(

I'm sitting in the Math Building Cafe right now because of the lack of internet in my room. I called the internet people again today and she promised that the technician would call me as soon as possible to come out to my room and check the plug in. The internet company is only responsible for the connection to the building, and if it is my jack that doesn't work, it's the landlord's responsibility, or something. So, it may get a little more complicated if that is the case. Oh well, the woman today was the most helpful so far.

Also, it's funny to me that every building is a 'house'. Because in Swedish, they use 'hus' for everything. Like, I am in the Math house right now, translated directly. But when you talk to a Swede, it's easy for them to forget to use the word 'building' or something because house is so easy to translate and everything becomes a house. I love learning about little language things like that. It's so funny. It's the same for the word for teach/learn. In Swedish, it's the same word. So Swedish people are constantly saying, "He was learning me" when they mean "He was teaching me". Cute.

Anyway, I'm going to move to the library to get away from the lunch rush of people that just descended around me. Ciao.

SENSATION

On Halloween, I didn't dress up as anything. Instead, I dressed in all white, and went to the National Soccer Stadium in Copenhagen for this big rave-dj-show-dancing extravaganza thing. Called Sensation White. (go to www.sensation.com, then it will all make sense).

It was AMAZING. First of all, just the sheer number of people (>10,000) was awesome. And everyone of those people was dancing at some point during the night. Everyone of those people dressed in all white and it's just a really cool feeling to be part of something like that. It was all (drinks, lockers, tickets) much more expensive than we're used to in Lund, but the music alone was worth it. The DJs were Erick E, Morten Breum, Axwell & Sebastian Ingrosso (two members of the Swedish House Mafia), Mr. White, and Tocadisco. I might have missed one in there while we took an eating break. But Morten Breum and the Swedish House Mafia were definitely my favorites. DJs are the most under appreciated musicians, and should definitely be more well known than they are. No really, you should go look these guys up and listen to some of their stuff. It's amazing.

And on top of all that, there were crazy go-go dancers and an incredible laser and light show and big screens everywhere with different images on them to go with the music. You really could just watch, but we were there to dance.

A couple bad things about events in Europe (or at least Denmark):
- No one knows how to queue properly. I had to pick up my ticket when I got there, and it was absolutely hellish. So much that they had to get like fifteen security guards to form a barrier so people like me wouldn't get squished.
- No one even bothers to look for a trash can, and even if they did, there definitely weren't enough in the place to hold all the cups and lids and cup carriers etc that were produced. The trash was ALL OVER the floor and you had to kick it out of your area to dance. Sarah told me, "I feel like we'll be climbing out of trash at the end of the night," which turned out to not be exactly true, but the stairs were almost unrecognizable.

Anyway, it was totally worth the ticket price (~$120) for the music alone. The crazy show was just added on top of that. Crazy people dressed in white = wow.

Tonight I have film class...then tomorrow I want to go to Malmö or Kristianstad or somewhere here in Skåne for a day trip. Then to Will's for a preparty and VGs. Then Thursday-Monday, I have free! Crazy, right? Maybe I'll do something nuts.

Oh and Monika is planning a trip tp Kiruna in December!! So I'm pretty excited about that.