Everybody's working for the weekend

So today wraps up my first full weekend in Praha. From the top:

Let's talk about Friday morning. For some sick, sick reason, signups for NYU's sponsored trips this semester were posted at 8 AM on Friday. Why. I want to know who was in charge of that super decision. It's like the administrators here are playing some sort of sadistic game to see how early they can force a bunch of hung-over college kids to wake up. Rumors had been flying around that people were planning on getting there a half hour early, so we all roused ourselves at 6:30 IN THE GODDAMN MORNING. So unpleasant. But we signed up for the trips we wanted, so it was worth it. I guess.

We all went out to breakfast afterwards. I have to admit, for a quiche prepared in a mock French bistro in a former communist country, it wasn't half bad. The fresh squeezed orange juice was outrageous, though. Alex had like 30 glasses because she thought she was getting sick and wanted to OD on Vitamin C. Anyways, I skipped my last Czech class to get back at NYU for making me get up at the crack of dawn. It was so nice- I went back to Machova, took a shower, watched a little TV. The best part was that the dorm was completely empty, so there were no loud idiots in the stairwell and no one blasting Tupac (I support both those things, just not in the morning). It's a nice preview of what my Mondays are going to be like, since I don't have class until 3:30.

A bunch of us took a guided tour of Prague Castle in the afternoon. It was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures on facebook speak for themselves, so I don't need to tell you again how amazing the sights were. But I just did. Whatever. Our tour guide was actually an NYU professor who just does these tours for fun.

One thing I didn't realize about Czech people is how many of them absolutely hate the direction their country has gone. When we walked past Madeline Albright's place of birth, she told us that Madeline was offered the presidency of the Czech Republic, but turned it down because she didn't want to live here. Then she turned to me and muttered "I don't know why anyone would want to come here from America. It's so much better there. This place is awful." WHOA. As Frankie says, relax. When we got to the castle, I asked her if the president still lived there. "Unfortunately," she replied. But this isn't like when people used to hate on George Bush because, as my anthropology professor once said, he's "a stumblebum retard." This is old school Central European dissension brewing. Scary stuff.

We also amused ourselves on the tour by trying to take the ugliest candid photos of each other. We're so mature.

Friday night was incredible. We started at this place called Pivovarsky Dum, which according to Holley means "Beer House." It lived up to its name, let's make that clear. Nolan, Kush, Damon and I split 2 Giraffes, which are giant 4 liter towers of beer, and in typical college kid fashion, we decided to race. It was a hard-fought battle, but Damon and I lost by about half a pint. And the beer? It was their house-brewed dark and light mixed beer, the best I've had so far. Plus, the menu had a section titled "Little things that go well with beer." I think every menu should have that. Kate, Alex, and Emily all had a shot of Absinth, which I don't have the balls to do yet. After Pivovarsky closed, we went to this place called Cheers for more drinks. Apparently we have no self-control.

So now we're all pretty toasted, and by that point, all we wanted to do was find a club and go nuts. Well Friday is not a big club night in Prague (why? I don't know), so after a while we found this hidden club underneath a place called Retro cafe. There was a bouncer at the door, but he let us in. It was so much fun, jumping around like an idiot to crazy techno music with a beer in my hand. There was a buffet with food layed out at one end of the room, but when Lisa decided she was hungry, we were all kicked out. Why? Because apparently we crashed some Czech girl's birthday party. On the way out the door I met a group of drunk Slovaks and they taught me a Slovak song. So cool.

Saturday night was equally memorable. Kush, Damon, Nolan, and I had tickets to the Czech Philharmonic's Opening Gala event, so we got all dressed up and went. Let me tell you, there's something about walking down an ancient cobblestone street in a fine suit that makes you feel like royalty. Try it, you'll know what I'm talking about. The Philharmonic was incredible. I'd never been to a professional orchestra in an old-school concert hall, and it was a sight to behold. There was a red carpet, fancy hors d'oeuvres, people dressed to a T. Classy as shit. The concert hall was breathtaking. It had this golden atmosphere to it that I can't even begin to describe.

Side note: During intermission, Damon and I went outside and saw a group of four NYU students dressed in hipster jeans and hoodies passing around a flask and making rum and cokes. Things like that make me so angry. How were you raised that you think it's OK to dress like that when you're going to see one of the world's best orchestras perform their opening concert? It's just disrespectful. And why do you feel the need to sneak this flask in? You can't go two hours without a drink? They were selling beers for a buck-fifty inside for Chrissake! You're not seeing your friend's shitty band in a basement in Williamsburg, so don't fucking act like it. Sometimes, I really hate being an NYU student.

Afterwards we went to this place called U sudu. Everyone knows it as Cave Bar, though, because it's actually this network of tunnels and cellars that's like 2 stories underground. It's the craziest place! You definitely feel that you're underground, but it's not uncomfortable or anything. They have this amazing stuff, I think it's called barcek, that tastes like apple cider but has way more alcohol in it than beer. Now usually I'm not into the fruity drinks, but this stuff was fantastic. And since you can't taste the alcohol (no really, you can't. Not like when people say you can't taste it but really it's just very faint. You cannot taste any alcohol in this), you don't realize how drunk you're getting until it's too late.

But the bar was a really great place to meet people. I met a guy from France who works in Prague. When I asked him about Paris he said it was dirty and that I should go to Poland instead. Interesting. When we were outside at one point, a German couple came up to us and said that their hostel locked them out and what should they do. I recommended they go inside and have a beer, and they did. Gotta love Prague. We all jammed into two cabs home, and I'm pretty sure we got ripped off.

On a down note, an ATM ate my friend Sara's debit card. She argued with the Euronet service guy on the phone for a while and all they'll do is extract the card and send it back to America. In three weeks. Definitely not using that ATM again.