Sorry I haven’t written for the past week; it’s been raining THE ENTIRE TIME. Just my luck that while I’m here, Prague is having the coldest summer in 260 years, and also the worst rainfall in 11 years. Perfect. I also don’t have an umbrella and the soles of my boots are coming off. Good, good.
If you haven’t, Google the Prague flooding that’s been happening.
For most of last week, I was just painting a lot. It’s hard to paint when the weather is nice because I just wish I was outside. But gross, cold, rainy weather isn’t that motivational either. The days dragged on, I managed to get like one and a half paintings almost done? Here’s an in-progress of one:
On Friday, a large group of us were supposed to go to the Bee Institute across the river to learn about honey bees? It really was just walking around a lot in cold rain waiting for a bus to show up, 2 hours later the trip was cancelled and we made our way back to school. I worked on watercolors for a while and then was asked by my friends if I wanted to go to the Beer Museum. I thought it was a little late for a museum to be open, but school was closing and my spirit had not yet been broken by the endless rain. Was I stupid to think that it was actually a museum? Maybe. Probably. Yes. Because of course it was a bar.
BUT it was an awesome bar, because you could get small samples of tons of different beers. After 10 samples, my favorite has become Ferdinand special lager, which is described as “clear, deep golden in color with a pleasant herbal flavor and a hint of vanilla”, the second favorite went to Ferdinand’s Sedm Kuli Amber Lager, which is “flavored with black licorice, black pepper, and basil, with tones of caramel, dark malt, dried plums, vanilla and candy sugar”. I also didn’t mind the honey or banana falvors, but my least favorite was the chocolate beer (whattt) and this horrible IPA. Overall, we had a lot of fun and walked through the rain to get some fried cheese sandwiches before heading back to the Pension.
On Friday, Megan and I got up early to eat breakfast and then got on the metro to head to the best rainy-day weather destination: IKEA. I had never been to an IKEA before, and was sad to hear that this one is not as good as the one in Charlotte. What is this about? If I’m in Eastern Europe I expect the most fulfilling and perfect IKEA experience ever created. It was still pretty cool though, and wasted a good part of the afternoon. Megan also found her dream shower curtain:
Afterwards, we went to the mall next door & saw The Great Gatsby! I just finished the book a few days ago, and thought that the movie was OK. I’m not sure if I like it yet, but now that I know it was done by the same director as Moulin Rouge, I think I do. Seeing Leo die on screen (again) was still a painful experience.
The last couple of days have really just been a blur of cheap Vietnamese food and movies. Classes were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday due to metro flooding and high river levels. The rain has kind of put everyone into a funk, I know that I didn’t feel like doing anything this weekend. Thankfully, Megan has a ton of movies on her laptop and has also agreed to start running with me! We’ve been a couple of times this week when the rain has stopped for more than 2 minutes, and I’m starting to feel better already. Now we need to make sure that the amount of bread and potatoes we eat is balanced out by the amount of running we do (?). It would also be nice if Czech people didn’t stare at us like total weirdos when we’re running around. But oh well.
Yesterday, the 6th day of rain, was like Christmas for several reasons. For one, we got to sleep in. I got to use my new conditioner after using only shampoo for over 2 weeks. I also found a pair of jeans in my closet that I haven’t worn yet. After that amazing discovery, Megan, Gary, Jasper and myself went to The Globe for lunch. I had not been to The Globe before, but it was absolutely wonderful. Everyone spoke English perfectly, they had cheeseburgers and mac & cheese, an English bookstore, and free Wifi! I wanted to cry with happiness. It felt like home, and we ended up sitting at our table for the next 5 hours. I ordered the Colonel Panini with chicken, avocado, and french fries with ketchup(!) and the most delicious hot tea I’ve ever had IN MY LIFE. It’s called Harney & Sons, and Megan and I were beside ourselves with how good it was. I bought The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and read for most of the afternoon.
Once we hit happy hour, we decided that we may have outstayed our visit and went outside. It was freezing, but it had also stopped raining!! We were near the river, so we went to go explore some flooding.
These really aren’t that exciting, but the river was about 15 feet over what it normally is.
After getting back to the Pension, I had a relaxing night watching Game of Thrones (!!!!!) with Jasper and then Collateral with Gary. Today is cold but thankfully not raining, and after going on a run this morning I’m back at school trying to force myself to paint (not really). But soon. Tonight, I’m going with a lage group of people to see the Sleeping Beauty Ballet and I am beyond excited 🙂 Hopefully more interesting and blog-worthy things will happen this week!
A Place in Prague 