Prague, Czech Me Out!

Two days after the Prague trip is over and I am still archiving all the memories and people. Prague is a special city. The blend between the east and the west seems almost right. You meet the usual rude people from the Eastern Europe who think their job sucks and it is a privilege that they do talk to you.
To forget about this rather familiar experience you drown yourself in the amazingly good local beer. My experience in Prague taught me 2 local words: Pivo cerny Kozel. It is actually 2 words, since Kozel is the name of the wonderful dark beer from around the place. The beer would come after a hefty lunch or dinner, invariably containing a garlic based food.
And who could forget the Pub Crawl, the beer on the terrace facing Vltava, the obsession of all the buildings with religion and knights, the feeling of Catholic empowerement given by all the somptous cathedrals, the sausage with mustard at 3 AM, the night tram full of drunken or high people, the standing train trip to Kutna Hora, walking through blossomed cherry trees in the Royal Palace Gardens, feeling the pain of the past when visiting the Museum of Communism, sensing the kitch and the Amsterdam look-a-like desire with the Sex Museum or sex related items. All in all, 5 days and nights of living life.

And in the beginning there was beer. And God said: Enjoy your Czech beer! The end.

P.S.: Oh, yeah, almost forgot. If you feel offended by lousy service at a bar, never go where Jean Claude Van Damme has gone before: U Medvidku. And don't trust exchange bureaus. Just use a bank or ATM!

Germany and sports

This Sunday I went to see a handball game at the University. I was invited by my colleagues in the handball practice, as it was their last game in the league. For all the people that don't know, handball is the second most popular sport in Germany, after football obviously. And since my homework could wait (me grinning...) I went to see the game. The game itself wasn't really attractive, more kicking than playing (just like in Romanian football), but what amazed me was that the place was almost full and people were actually enjoying the game and the atmosphere. And we are talking about a seventh league game.
After the game the teams went out together and had a beer and a wurz (national food aka sausage). This was even more surprising, to see the home team invite all the people to a beer and a grilled wurz after the game. I actually found out when discussing with the others (people notice me easily here because I am the only one that speaks English :D) that the trainer of the team went to Iasi and he liked it. I really felt like in a real sporting event. It was like going to a show, not for a beating with some other guys. :)
One thing I noticed a lot here is that people don't smoke packed cigarettes, but they tend to have their own equipment for rolling some joints. I guess they prefer smoking what they know. And, anyway, who cares about smoking when you have a white beer in front of you?! :D The ultimate joy: white beer and wurz.