We last left off with our main characters arriving in Dresden and getting escorted to the International Guest House.
First Night in Dresden
Jeff decided that it would be a good idea for us to all try Heroine. Sort of. It is like heroine... but it is called "Doner." Now as I found out German's don't really have much of a special delicacy. Enter the Turks. Now there are Doner shops everywhere. It is kind of like a gyro, but much better. It's hard to explain the amazingness... I suggest you wikipedia it to get a better idea. Jeff and Jess took us to Neustadt for this German specialty, which is like the young person hip part of town. There were a punch of punks throwing beer over each other singing happy birthday in english (because english is hip) in the middle of the street. It was a funny sight. The night commenced with us sitting on the Elbe looking across at Alstadt (I think) drinking some "good" German beer. It's alright. But the view was pretty!
Arrival of Alex
Jeff's brother Alex came to hang out with us. Before his arrival me, Greg, and Jeff took a 20 mile bike ride to Pirna to get a Doner. And then came immediately back. We met up with Alex. This called for Chinese food. Jeff doesn't know of any places.... We got Indian. We also made plans to meet up with Emily. So me, Jeff, Alex, Greg, and Jess departed on our 45 minute walk to the Indian place in Neustadt. We met up with Emily. I got chicken biryani which was delicious. Dinner was fun because as Americans we laugh hearty and enjoy ourselves. A quick look around the room reminded us we were in Germany... everyone was quiet and serious... boring. After Indian we all went back home and crashed.
The Weekdays Mean Jeff Works
Our first Monday. Me, Greg, and Alex slept til like noon. There is something awesome about going to another country and just doing what you would have done at home. Change of scenery, ya know. Jeff came back and took us to the Mensa, where we would meet his Canadian (read: American) friend Terry. The mensa is interesting... its a cheap cafeteria where you get 5 preset options to choose from along with a few a la carte items. BUT part of the payment process involves the language barrier showdown. The language barrier showdown is when one person who is entitled to the discount brings 3 friends to also get the discount. These four people only speak english and the cash register person only speaks German. You cross your fingers and hope for the best. We got through! Score: 1-0. The next day, we were in a deadlock. She spoke German at us, we kept shoving student cards in her face until she caved. We won again! 2-0. As far as what we did in Dresden, we got drunk in hallways of socialist buildings. We went into socialist construction sites and climbed to the top of buildings. We got ice cream. We got doners. We drank German beer in massive quantities. We got cheap wine. I mean that pretty much sums up the week without going into boring details. We also listened to German metal in Saturn, the electronics store. That was awesome.
Skipping to the best part... the best city in America: Prague
We, as good Americans, got drunk on the train to Prague. Greg had some very alcoholic rum with his coke. Me and Jeff had some knock off jager with OJ. We arrived in great shape. After some minor confusion in the city some Brits pointed us towards our hostel. We got there and had just enough time to meet Alex at his hostel. The first night we went out to "Nebe" which was a neat little dance club/bar. It was fun. Time flies when you are having fun. The next day we of course touristed. Alex found out about some Indy show for like 90 kroner (22kroner = $1). The Prostitutes headlined and they are good. Look them up on Myspace Music or something. Road Side Mary also played... they were decent. The show was good. The beers semi-cheap with a good taste of American Lager (yes, I like American beer over German beer. I must be defected). A good night overall. The next day we touristed more and read in a park that was an island in the middle of the river. Twas cool again. Jeff introduced me more thoroughly to Forward Russia!, they are awesome. We got Bohemia Bagel, which is an awesome food place in Prague. It screams American. That night we followed our guide (Alex) to the outskirts of town to go to a "grungy expat bar" called Blind Eye. It was relaxed. We met an awesome guy named Big Rock. Ask me about him typed words can not do him justice. People in other countries are weird... they do not get started til like 2am. Well eventually someone brought up the fact that it was 4am so we headed home. It was already getting light out. We decided to stay an extra day cause we never got to go the spots in the mostly touristy areas. So we went to M1 and Chateau. They were meh... it WAS a Sunday. They were also more expensive which sucked! Anyways... that was pretty much it. We picked up some wine for our train ride home on Monday and got tipsy for the ride back.
Back to Dresden
Well I got back and took a nap around 1pm ish. Woke up with a massive headache. We grabbed Jess and got some beers and headed out to the Aquarium. We also grabbed Jeffs friend Navin. They had some cool live jazz music that really helped the setting. We just drank casually and talked and headed back for the night. Surprisingly, we did not get a Doner that night. Possibly because we got one as soon as we arrived in Dresden. Oh yeah... they recognize us. We got high fives upon entering. Tuesday meant Alex's arrival. He got here, Terry, Jess, Emily and her friend Steve all came over. We listened to some music, drank some beers, and headed out to Neustadt. The goal was to show Alex a good part of Dresden before he left... on a Tuesday night... during exam week. We got chinese food/doners and headed into a place called "Katy's Garage." One of the first songs we heard was by Forward Russia!, so needless to say Jeff was excited. They continued to play good music by Muse, Nirvana, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. Overall it was a good night full of beer, dancing, foosball, and meeting cool people. Once again... we realized it was 4am and got home around 430am.
Best Day in the World
It is now the 4th of July. I have finally caught up on the blog by cutting it really short. We plan to be very American today. I plan to head back to Prague on Friday I think. I think I am starting to see that much of Europe is similar so the travel effect is losing its effect on me... hence me reading news back home, talking on AIM, etc. Maybe 3 months was overzealous. We will see.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Dresden and Praha
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Frank, Greg is stupid. Tell him to write something. Don't tell me he can't type because of his trigger finger or something.
I would like to comment on the "American Beer is Crap" myth. From what I understand, the quality difference in German and American beer is due in large part to the difference in drinking culture in America and Germany. Yes, both Germans and Americans love to indulge in Binge drinking, but it seems the ways in which we binge differ. In America, we tend to play drinking games, such as beer pong and flip cup that require one to chug large amounts of liquid in spurts (the unit of mL of beer over time in sec. will be herin refered to as "beer power"). In fact it would seem to me that our entire binge drinking mentality revolves around who can chug the highest volume of liquid in the shortest amount of time. The American pilsner is superb for this purpose because it goes down easy, it has a mild flavor, and it doesnt fill you up too much. Since most people get thier introduction to drinking beer around this collegiate culture of high beer power, they grow used to the lagers that you hold dear. That is not to say that there is a lack of good flavorful beer in the US. Take the American pale ale for example. Its flavor and bitterness are unrivaled by nearly any beer I have consumed (save Indian pale ales). There are also micro-breweries that create everything from authentic Germans Heiferwiezens (a fvorite of mine as well) to heavy, syrupy stouts. The problem is, that for the most part these breweries cater to niche markets and simply do not have the reach that Miller, Coors and Budweiser do. In fact, according to the history channel, the American lager was a world renowned taste before prohibition, which prompted brewers to move underground, and switch the easier, cheaper, faster pilsner style that we have all grown to love. Once people got used to it, the style stuck, and was the choice for the large commercial breweries that popped up after WW2.
But i have gotten off course. It seems to me, based on Jeffs rantings and popular culture stereotypes, that Germans are less likely to engage in high beer power drinking, and seem to prefer a much more social "get drunk in the streets" approach to intoxiaction. Since they are not required to consume thier beer as quickly, they have become accustomed to beer with a higher alcohol content and more flavor and higher specific gravity that would be uncomfortable to consime quickly.
I dont have time to finish my thoughts since i am being kicked off this computer. good day.
bah....they grow used to the PILSNERS that you hold dear. Not lagers.
Dan,
I would take an American pale ale over a German pilsner any day. The only problem is that the American pale ale costs roughly $1 US for a 12 oz bottle. The German pilsner, on the other hand, is about $.25 for .5 L (about 17 oz) of much higher quality beer. These are grocery store prices in both cases...
So it is definitely true that good beer is available in America. Unfortunately it is neither cheap nor ubiquitous. Although individuals are free to have their own tastes, the general consensus is that the mass-produced American Lagers are crap.
Another big difference is that beer is a very localized kind of thing in Germany. Local beers exist in America, of course, but they are considered something of a specialty. Regardless of where you are in America, the beer menu will probably look about the same, with the exception of a few local beers thrown in there. On the other hand, the intersection of a beer menu in Dresden and a beer menu in Berlin will most likely be the null set. Continuing on the idea of localized beer, I have not yet visited (nor do I plan on visiting) the beer capital of Germany: Bavaria. Here in Dresden the menu will most likely just consist of a few pilsners, a schwarzbier, and a weissbier ("heiferviezen" as you have chosen to call it). The pilsners are definitely my favorite. Schwarzbiers can sometimes be a bit sweet for my tastes, and the weissbiers a bit light.
If you are really trying to discount German culture, let's talk about coffee... Mmmm... Coffee...
god how is prague so fucking great?
Post a Comment