Prague - To remember and share the good times

Prahalloween

This post will be brief because I want to catch up on the blog and post about other trips. So Halloween weekend (Fri. Oct. 29 - Sun. Oct. 31) was the first weekend I was in Prague since the weekend before Oktoberfest which was Sept. 24-26th. Needless to say, it was nice not to have to travel, keep track of a passport, deal with exchange rates, and sleep in the comforts of my own bed.

The weekend started when Sam Plumer and his buddy from Davidson, Luke Jenkins, arrived here in Prague on Friday morning after thier plane had been delayed the night before. I couldn’t believe what Sam looked like when I first saw him - such Eurotrash with a long gray pea coat and Burberry-looking scarf. What have the French done with him? Anyways after we got settled in at my apartment, I took Sam and Luke to the Palladium for some lunch and then the Vysherad Castle which is a little out of the way south of Prague. I figured it would be a good time to check out this castle because we probably wouldn’t have time to see it during the bustle and hussle of the weekend. When we returned from taking some amazing pictures of Southern Prague in autumn we returned to find Lucy and Lora in my room. My 4 guests had arrived. After hanging out and introducing the group, we all went to dinner at Kolkovna just on the corner down the street - my favorite restaurant in all of Prague. After a deliicious dinner at Kolkovna and after having ate my staple there - chicken and potato gnochhi - we retired back to my apartment to get ready for an evening on the town in Prague and also for Prahallomazoween.

Prahallomazoween was a a pre game that one of the SDT girls here in Prague, Rebecca Lomazow, always sets up with her brother because they have birthdays on the bookends of Halloween (usually it’s just Hallomazoween). Anyways the pre game was a really good time, with subsidized drinks thanks to Lomazow’s parents and basically everyone from Penn who was in Prague that weekend (a lot) and even the Tulane crowd made it to Vezenska. After Prahallomazoween had run its course, we took the party to Lucerna, a club that plays 80s and 90s music on Friday and Saturday nights. Always have a good time at Lucerna and I also always grab some smazeny syr (fried cheese) at the late night food stands in Wenseclas. On this occasion, I double fisted two on the way there and had another on the way home. What can I say they are really good.

We woke up on Saturday, grabbed some breakfast at Bake Shop ($$$$$$) and headed up to the Prague Castle to snap some good pictures of the city, St. Vitus cathedral, and each other I guess.

Prague looked beautiful on yet another beautiful autumn day up at the castle. We snapped some photos and lounged around the grounds, taking in the view and the sun.

We finally descended the castle hill into Mala Strana - “lesser town” - and then crossed the Vltava River on the Charles Bridge, the first and most famous bridge spanning the Vltava that connects Mala Strana to Stare Mesto (Old Town). After making a dinner reservation at a place called Hybernia that my Czech friend from the “Czech buddy” program recommended to me, we lounged around my apartment, watched some Modern Family, and got ready for dinner and then an outrageous night at “Bloodysexy Halloween” a party at the huge club SaSaZu sponsored by Erasmus Orgasmus Prague, the event coordinators for the European Erasmus students studying in Prague (there are a lot of them).

We made it to dinner and although the food was delicious, the beer was flat (what the hell?) and the food took more than AN HOUR to arrive at our table after ordering. It was ridiculous. After finally eating and picking up our spirits, we waltzed on back to the apartment to get ready for SaSaZu. Some of the Penn kids had arranged a table with bottle service for $50.00 for the night which all 5 of us agreed to buy in to. It took a while to get into the club and also to get the VIP wristbands to get into the club, but once we were in and settled at our table, the party began. What a good time it was - the craziest party and club I’d been to in Prague by far.

As you can see, none of us managed to find a costume - but we still looked good, wink wink..

After hanging out at our table with Team Penn and dancing on the dance floor with people in their outrageous Halloween costumes, Sam, Lucy, Lora and I all took a cab to Darlings (which took some serious convincing on me and Sam’s part) for Mr. Plumer’s first cabaret experience. He was impressed. The girls were grossed out, but who cares it was Halloween, it was Prague, and it was Europe…time to go a little crazy. Again the gang and I remained patrons, not participants.

After a rather long night, we retired and reunited with Luke who had gone after a girl who had a boyfriend and therefore had been shut down - poor guy. We all passed out and awoke on Sunday morning feeling a little groggy. We managed to get ourselves together and headed to the Palladium for breakfast which at that point in the day was pizza. After getting some water and food in our systems, I took the crew to the John Lennon wall which is a famous graffiti-covered wall with a bunch of John Lennon pictures, songs, and lyrics written all over the wall with people’s personal messages written in marker over them.

After visiting the wall my 4 guests ventured to see the Prague Dancing House which is a symbol of modern architecture in Prague while I retired to my man cave to study for my Economic Development in CEE midterm which was on Monday (yikes). After the gang returned from that, we went to eat at a great Italian restuarant called Pepe Nero and we approached by an extremely gregarious American named Gil who was studying in wouldn’t-you-know-it Antwerp, Belgium where the James Madison Business school sends their business students abroad. Alia is going to be studying in the same place as this kid on the same program next semester (they both go to JMU), so I was sure to play the name game with Gil but he didn’t know Alia or any of her friends. Oh well. The second JMU student I have run into in Europe (first was at Oktoberfest).

Well after dinner on Sunday night, the gang once again retired to my room to rest and relax while I tried to study for econ. Sam and Luke’s flight didn’t leave until 6 a.m. on Monday and Lora and Lucy’s flight left around 10 a.m.

After staying awake to call Sam and Luke a cab around 4 a.m. to take them to the airport I caught a snooze but then had to get up at 7:30 for my 8:20 czech class. I ended up making it through my Monday after really struggling on the econ exam. Lucy and Lora left without a problem, and I came home Monday afternoon and just crashed. Wow, what a weekend. Had a great time though and survived my exam…SUCCESS.