Prague (and Brussels)

I've been in Prague since Monday and will be leaving for Budapest on Monday, where it so happens that I will be meeting back up with this one Aussie staying in my room here. Was in Brussles for two days before, which was, for the most part, a big pain in the ass. I didn't bother checking train times before I booked the flight and ended up seriously screwing myself: my flight was out of London Heathrow at 2:00 pm and there were no trains out of Manchester early enough to get me there on time, so I had to leave at 10:00 pm the night before. There was a 7 hour window between my train into one station and the first one out of it, which I figured I could wait out there. Unfortunately, the station closed as soon as I arrived, so I walked around for a bit and then waited in a nearby outdoor bus station for a couple hours, but started to get a bit concerned for my safety by 2:30 or so. I decided that I should go ahead and just buy a ticket on a bus for at least part of my trip. Found a bus headed to the airport and while they didn't have any tickets to sell me, they went ahead and let me on anyway. Tried to tip the driver for the free ride afterwards, but he wouldn't accept any money. I got to the airport around 5:00 am and waited for my flight. Finally got into Brussels and walked around for a good two hours before I could find the damned tram to my hostel. When I finally got on, I had some guy try to pick my pocket, but either he wasn't particularly good at it, or my tight ass jeans made it really difficult. I finally arrived at my hotel about 9:00 pm (that's 23 hours after I left Manchester), which was located in a ghetto primarily inhabited by (what appeared to be) Middle Easterners who weren't particularly fond of me. I went out to get a snack and within 2 minutes had some guy shouting (I think) "I'm Bin Laden, I'm Bin Laden" at me. Needless to say, I didn't go out that night and made sure I was back at the hotel before nightfall the following day. The central part of the city was very cool, though, and very pedestrian friendly: very wide sidewalks and all the major streets had wide, tree lined medians with walkways making them resemble small parks between the two directions of traffic. I stopped and had a few beers at some sidewalk cafes there.

Prague has been nice, but not quite as cool as I had expected. The hostel I'm staying at is amazing, though. Unfortunately, the hostel I'm staying at is nearly completely populated by Americans. I didn't travel thousands of miles to meet people I could easily find down the
road from my place. One of the bartenders here is an Irishman whose sister works at Fibber Magee's, which is kinda cool, in a small world sort of way.

I went to this cool bar the other night, Ujzed, that had this very hybrid Eastern European/ rockabilly feel to it. I am, however, quite ashamed to say that I fell off the bar stool there--not because I was wasted, but because it was a good foot higher than any other bar stool I've ever seen and I had forgotten about that over the course of my one beer there. (I have started to get the beginnings of a beer belly from all the beer I've had over here). I have finally managed to have a few cigars (Cubans, no less) with my Scotches here. Tuesday I treated myself to a belated birthday dinner at a Cuban place with a Macallan 25 Fine Oak and a Cohiba. After the UK, with it's 25-35 ml max shot, it's nice to finally be able to get an almost decent pour of whiskey here.

I visited the Franz Kafka and Communism museums (among others) in the past few days, which were pretty cool. Tried to visit a Jewish synagogue and cemetery today, but it was closed.

It seems that Prague has the most heavily concentrated tourist areas of any of the cities I've been to so far, which is really annoying. I made the mistake of trying to cross Charles Bridge a few days ago, where I had to make my way through a few hundred tourists stopping all over the place to take a damned picture.

Last week, I received word that I was accepted to LSU, and while I'm still waiting on definitive word from Columbia and NYU, I will definitely have to be back to the US by mid-August.

The thing that I miss most about home is being able to get some Taco Bell after night out (which, it seems, is a sentiment shared by several of the other Americans I've talked to). I would seriously pay $30+ for a couple bean burritos and a chicken quesadilla. If I'm able to get a job in Edinburgh, I'm going to have to have someone ship me a big package of burritos and quesadillas packed in dry ice.

I'm writing this at a table on the sidewalk at the Cuban place, smoking a cigar and drinking a glass of Scotch.

I have time for one, maybe two more stops before I head back to Edinburgh and right now, I'm thinking it's going to be either Sarajevo or someplace in Italy (I know what your suggestion would be, Matt).

Well, my cigar is nearly finished and I think that pretty much covers all that has happened since I last blogged.