A Fine Saturday with Alba

What a weekend! My friend Alba (third from the right) came to visit Prague with 4 of her friends. They are studying German in Berlin, but are students at the University of Barcelona. It was refreshing to hang out with students again. It reminded me of what it was like to be in college—being semi-naïve to the "real world," willing to meet anyone and everyone, and being as adventurous as possible on a tight budget. It's amazing how much you can do with so little money. I remember having that sense of, "What have I got to lose? I'm invincible." :) Ok, I admit, maybe I still feel that way today.

The answer to the question, "What have I got to lose?" came on Saturday and was in the amount of 25 bucks. We weren't so invincible when we had our run-in with the Czech police.

I met the Spaniards at their youth hostel and we were recommended to take the tram into the old city center. My new Spanish friends supposedly had some sort of student ticket they thought would be valid on the tram. I was naïve and figured I could just hop on and pay when I got on the tram, or even just get by without paying since it was a relatively short ride. Damn, was I wrong!

When we were about to get off, these two 40 year old guys wearing plain clothes came over to us and flashed some silly looking ring at us. Initially, we thought they were trying to sell us something, but they then said, "Your tickets, please."

I'm thinking, "Ok, I'll just pay for my ticket now."

When they all showed their student tickets and I said I didn't have one, they said, "500 koruna [25 dollars]. Each of you."

"Whaaaaaaat? No way!" We all figured they were kidding. My friend's "tickets" apparently were no good and they wanted to charge us a fine for just hopping on. Our first reaction was that they were phonies--trying to take innocent tourists' money. These guys look like chumps! At least they could have been dressed in a uniform or something!

I was calm and just asked, "Can we just pay the regular price? We are just tourists and we didn't know any better. We are not trying to cheat you."

"You can pay 500 each. [While pointing at each of us] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of you…3,000 total."

"Come on. We are just poor students!"

This went on for awhile. They wouldn't let us off where we wanted, but they eventually had us get off when they saw two cops near a stop. Neither my new friends nor I had that much cash. They're all poor students, and I've had so many cash expenditures while working here, I literally had zero left in my checking account. So, going to the ATM was NOT an option.

The cops sucked. They barely said anything, but they took our ID's (It seems to be the only thing cops do, but I won't get into that discussion now). By now Alba was furious cause she was positive they were just taking advantage of us, WHICH THEY WERE.

After about 10 minutes, the cops confirmed, "Yes. 3,000 koruna. Or, we take you to jail." Other than that they said nothing. It was so aggravating cause I wanted someone ELSE to validate the fine, but everyone around us was acting like nothing was happening--completely ignoring the 6 random tourists trying to negotiate in broken English.

We felt like we were getting screwed over, so I eventually called the hotel and told the front desk our situation. Unfortunately, they confirmed that it WAS legitimate and that this fine is the penalty when you board a tram without paying.

Fine. We've already wasted an hour. I just want to forget about this. I'll pay. There's no point in drawing this out any longer. I called my buddy, Nausher, and told him the mess we had gotten into. Like a savior, he took a taxi to where we were and brought 3,000 koruna. We paid and just like that we were free to go.

Damn. At the end of the day none of us were really angry about the amount of the fine--25 dollars wasn't going to break anyone's bank--it was the fact that they weren't understanding at all. I know they're just doing their job, but it sucked being so vulnerable…such easy targets. My only consolation is that those two chumps' jobs must suck, and I hope every honest tourist they fine gives them as much hell as possible. And seriously, aren't there bigger fish to fry? Aren't there more serious crimes being committed? Bah.

Needless to say, we soon forgot and got drunk off of beer and tequila shots. Alba and her friends would try to pay me back today, but that's another story in itself!

Random thoughts:
1. I realize that story doesn't compare to the time I was in Greece, "Is BIG, no?" but I don't think anything will ever top that.
2. Drunken McFlurries are still as delicious as I remember.
3. Maybe something is lost in the translation, but for a city full of tourists, Czech waiters are typically NOT very friendly.
4. I'm getting excited to go home for a weekend. I hope it doesn't totally tire me out.

A Different Side of Praha

We found a neighborhood away from all the tourists last night. I felt like I was in a completely new city--staring at the buildings, many of which reminded me of the apartment buildings in San Francisco, only taller with bigger features. There appeared to be the occasional restaurant every few blocks and much more family-oriented, instead of being on top of one other with flashy signs, lights, traffic, and filled with tourists. I thought, "Hmmm, I could live HERE." We pulled up to the restaurant, called Aromi, and little did I know, we were in for a treat. We had all kinds of seafood, wine, chocolate soufflé, and grappa. I was drunk come dessert. :)

Ha, I actually just Googled Aromi and this came up: "Aromi is located in the heart of Vinohrady quarter, one of the most desirable residential areas of Prague, filled with restaurants and antique shops."

So I guess I'm not the only one who'd like to live there. I'd want to live there if I were a student or a resident of the Czech Republic. A study abroad program would have been amazing in Praha as well. However, for now, I still prefer living in San Francisco.

Hefeweizen from the Bottle?

I felt like a student again--backpacking through Europe on an overnight train. Friday night I hopped on a train to Augsburg, Germany to visit my good friend Philip. I was in a sleeper car for 9 hours and eventually arrived at 5:30am on Saturday. I was so tired but still very excited to be there.

Phil recently moved into a new apartment. The funniest thing is that he built his own "closet." It's actually just a shelf he built in his room, but it looks like a display at a department store. I pretended to go shopping through his clothes and tried things on.


I wish I spoke German cause Saturday night a bunch of Philip's friends came over to celebrate his birthday. Everyone spoke English but they were speaking German to each other the whole time. I wonder if it's annoying for them to have to speak English to me. They're probably like, "You're in Germany! It's your turn to speak German with an American accent!" It was still fun though since I've met most of Phil's close friends on previous visits.


That's Phil's roommate, Matthias, with a bunch of pretzels someone brought. German pretzels are sooo good. Phil also made Leberkäse, which translated means to liver cheese, but has neither liver nor cheese. It's the ham/spam looking thing on the plate in the picture above.

It was interesting, we bought a few cases of beer and I cracked one of the hefeweizens open and started drinking out of the bottle. Everyone kept on asking me, "Don't you need a glass for that?"

Me: "Nah, it's ok. I'll just drink for the bottle. Everyone else is."

German: "No, there's a special glass for the hefeweizen."

Me: "I know. It's ok though. Thanks."

After a while it became quite apparent that it was ill-advised, if not unacceptable, to drink the precious hefeweizen straight from the bottle. Moritz also showed me how to properly swivel the last few drops while pouring to get all of the yeast that settles on the bottom. The hefeweizen glasses are pretty sweet.

I woke up thirsty the next morning so I had another beer. Phil thought it was funny to drink beer for breakfast so he took a picture (you can see the Erdinger Hefe-Weizen glass).



Oh, how the Germans love their beer. Oh, how I love beer. Beer beer beer.
I hope to go to Munich in late September for Oktoberfest. Anyone care to join?

Harry This, Potter That!

My god, Harry Potter is truly an international phenomenon. Everyday, every meal, we talk about Harry Potter. One team member bought the book and finished it and now another one is reading it. Yet another just bought the first Potter book and started reading it. The whole team went to watch the movie last weekend. For some reason, I'm just not that interested. I'm sure they're entertaining books, but I've never really been into fantasy/fiction novels that much. Who knows, maybe I'll read one and get hooked.

A similar phenomenon, although on a smaller scale, happened with The Da Vinci Code back in 2004 when we were studying in Maastricht. Everyone was reading the book and raving about it, so I decided to read it. I was entertained but not that impressed. Oh well. I hope I don't sound too bitter.