As soon as we got off the bus, we knew we were in Eastern Europe. It just has a much different feel than Prague, and the pretty center is so small that I'll mostly remember the not-as-nice surrounding area. But I still really liked it. We had a great hostel with a "Chill Out Room" (where I worked late into the night on Friday on my Italy camp application).
For lunch, our hostel suggested the Slovak Pub, which is a gigantic place where every single chair looks and feels like it's about to break (again, it felt like Eastern Europe). They had a really funny menu with lots of options for student. According to the menu, their homemade beer is only available to students. Here's a picture of my favorite par
t of the menu...We went to two castles in greater Bratislava... Devin Castle and Bratislava Castle. Devin is a bit north, and it's where two rivers meet. It was SO beautiful. Napoleon destroyed it, so now it's mostly ruins, but the setting was amazing (pictured).
We coincidentally went to Bratislava during the weekend when all museums and tours were free (or at least they were supposed to be). We did take a free city tour, but the rest was a bit disappointing. We waited in line for a free boat cruise... only to have half of Slovakia just walk up to the front of the line and get on before us. So we went to the National Museum, where every exhibit cost money. Remember this was free museum day.
Brno
We really only went to Brno, which is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, to see the Fed Cup match between the Czech Republic and the US. It's the women's equivalent of the Davis Cup, so it's a huge international tennis tournament.
We were the only vocal USA fans in the entire arena. Our seats were in the last row of the arena, but after the first set (and after I spilled my beer onto the woman in front of me) we moved to the first row on the other side, pretty close to the American team.
Because it is a national team competition, the crowd was really loud. They were louder than the crowd at the Czech Republic vs. Finland hockey match I went to in February. And they had thundersticks. So pretty much, before every point the drummers and thunderstickers would make noise until the chairperson quieted them. Then there would be absolutely no sound during the point. If the Czechs won the point, the crowd would immediately scream and beat everything in sight. If the Americans won, my friend David and I would scream and clap our thundersticks (we were the only people making noise in the entire place at this point), and then a few seconds later the Czechs would start making noise again.
The American players (and I think their boyfriends/husbands) noticed us and one other group of Americans who actually had a flag (but made no noise) and occasionally cheered at us. So that was fun. Unfortunately, we had to leave early to catch our bus back to Prague so we missed the American comeback win.
Plzen
On Tuesday, Yael and I went to Plzen for the day since our only class was cancelled. Plzen is the home of Pilsner Urquell beer, and the origin of pilsner beer in general. It's also home to the world's 3rd largest synagogue.
When wandered around when we first got there, and found an "American Center" that was also a restaurant. I was curious about it, since it had screening times for American movies on the window. But the restaurant menu was in Czech, which I thought was strange. I walked in and the guy asked if I wanted to eat, and I told him that I didn't, that I was just interested in the American Center. So he pointed to a woman in the back and said "It's there. But she speaks no English. Do you speak German?" So much for that.
We met up with a cousin of Yael's internship supervisor so that Yael could give her gifts on behalf of her cousin. We expected to chat with her for a few minutes and get some recommendations for lunch. Instead, she showed us around the synagogue (and paid our admission), went to lunch with us, walked us to the top of the main church's tower (and paid our admission), and walked us to the brewery. It was wonderful.
The stairs of the tower were probably the most difficult stairs to the top of anything I've ever had to climb. When we got to the top, our unexpected guide told us about a statue below that honored the victims of "a disease with rats." I asked if it was the Black Plague, but she didn't understand, so I asked if it was the Bubonic Plague. She erupted in laughter because she couldn't believe that "Bubonic" was a real word.
The brewery itself was cool. While we were observing the factory, a pipe burst and beer started spewing out. The can producing section of the factory quickly became overtaken by a fast-moving current of beer (pictured). Our guide said she'd never seen it happen before.
BEYONCE
She's performing in Prague tonight. I wasn't going to go, but a friend on my program decided not to go at the last minute, so I'm going instead! I'm really excited to hear thousands of Czechs sing along.
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