Defenestration

(Prague Castle)

Pics again

Well we've been in Prague for a couple days now. I know I promised a guest post from Elwood, but as can be expected, Elwood is good for almost nothing other than to try to buy fruit at 1am to have during a night out in the bars. Some things just don't change, and Elwood is certainly a prime example. He is our lovable, ridiculous friend who needs constant care and attention.

Yesterday was our first full day in Prague. As we said, we went to bed relatively early our first night here so that we could all go on the 11am free walking tour that is given by the same company as we took one with in Munich. 9:30am came, my alarm went off and I told the others to get up. To give them a few minutes extra, I volunteered to take a shower first. That's when the following exchange happened:

Dooley: "Did you take a shower?"
Me: "Not yet but I'm about to."
(1 minute pause as I get my shampoo, towel, etc together)
Dooley: "Did you already shower?"
Me: "Really Dools? You asked me that less than two minutes ago?"
Elwood: (laughter)

Well, I took a shower and returned to our room and attempted to wake the others. Quickly Dooley and Elwood decided they would be waiting till the 2 PM tour instead, so I was off to take another tour by myself. Oh well, it happened in Munich and ended just fine, and with Elwood being such a great sleeper and giving Dooley an excuse to sleep in as well, I should have seen it coming. Fortunately a girl named Jessica from L.A. who has been studying abroad in Italy this semester left our hostel for the tour at the same time I did so we walked together. I was glad she seemed to know her way around a bit because Prague can be a bit confusing at first with it's winding narrow streets.

(sidenote: Jessica reminded me a lot of Kate Anderson both in appearance and mannerisms. I highly doubt this blog has made it's way to her, but I'm also aware that there are certainly people out there reading our blog that we're unaware of, and to all of you who have given us feedback, thanks. Good to know people are reading and enjoying the blog.)

We arrived to the town square and met our group for the tour. Again, the free tour was a great experience, and I highly recommend the company NewEurope. I had previously known little about the Czech Republic other than that it was the home of a childhood hero of mine. I learned a great deal about it's beginnings, religious conflicts, involvement in WWII, communist control, freedom, separation from Slovakia, and the practice of defenestration among other things. These people put defenestration on the map, as they have had 2 major defenestrations in their history that have had profound effects including the start of the 30 Years War. So that you can stop wondering, it's the great Czech practice of throwing people you oppose out the window. God (Czechs are 70% atheist) these people are awesome.

Anyway, I won't bore you with more history (check out the pictures linked at the top) I just need to prove to my parents that I'm not just partying, but my God do we party. (I'm 22 Mom, worry about your only remaining underage child). Things have kind of changed recently in Prague. It is now legal to have certain amounts of marijuana, shrooms, hash, cocaine, ecstasy, and some other things. Mom, I promise, I probably didn't try cocaine. If I did, where are the receipts?

Speaking of partying, we decided to go on a barcrawl last night. One of the leaders for it works at our hostel, so he met us in the lobby and we all walked over together. This guy decided to pretty much tell us how awesome he was the entire way there by bragging about chicks, drinking, hell, even karate. Obviously it backfired, and we've been mocking him to each other all day. Well we finally get to the meeting spot for the barcrawl, the crowd for it looked decent, so we figured we were in for a fun night. That's when the first curveball was thrown, we were heading to the bagel shop to start the barcrawl. Yep, the bagel shop. The actual shop was closed, it was just going to be a temporary beer hall for us. We payed for our wristbands and they just started bringing us pitchers of beer and a variety of shots. They made sure that over the next 90 minutes we could have as much as we wanted to drink of any of the beer and spirits. Fine, they had talked us into it.

We decided that it was in all of our best interests to stay under control this evening, and earlier in the night we had agreed that I would be our RD (responsible drinker, well responsible drunk is probably a better description). After arriving though, Elwood said he would not be taking shots, so the title of RD was given to him. Elwood would be the responsible one? Obviously Dools and I were unsure of this idea, but if nothing else, we had someone to blame for our shenanigans.

We quickly befriended two girls, Kendra and Alice (two new fans of the blog, hi girls) and a couple Australians, Max and ...... some other dude. We'll call him Sam, but it didn't really matter, the guy didn't really bring much to the table in my eyes. Well quickly that bar turned into a club across the street, then a relaxed pub down the street, and finally a pretty raging club a little bit further down. Things were going well. Elwood was dancing aggressively with the air, Dooley was flirting with a blackout, and I was a perfectly responsible and respectable gentlemen. There may have been loads of PDAs going around the club from our barcrawl group and hell, maybe even a drug deal or two in the bathroom. None of us were involved in these drug deals, but as these deals were going down in the bathroom, it was restricting my ability to relieve myself. Fortunately, they apologized for holding up the flow (pun intended and I don't care if it's gross Mom) and seemed like good guys, real straight shooters.

Well the night wound down and we eventually all made it back home, and were overjoyed to find the computers all open at 6am. So after a quick e-mail check it was bed time for Dools and I, and I found out this morning (12:30pm) that Elwood stayed up to watch some Entourage on mypod.

Here are the notes from last night:

• Dooley said "Minneanapolis"
• Kendra and Alice are from Minneapolis
• AFL, Australian #1 sport (Dan talking to Max about AFL)
  
• 10:21 Elwood walks into girls b-room and claims it was an architectural flaw, not his fault (Dan making an excuse for going into the girls bathroom)
  
• Max Hamberger (fbk), weird face, scarf, BERN (Elwood figuring out how to contact Max via Facebook)
  
• We'll leap frog later! (Elwood did the thing were I stand up straight and he jumps over me by putting his hands on my shoulders and pushing off. Immediately following this, Kendra asked if I wanted to jump over here, which I believe I accurately decided would be a horrible choice in the slippery snow)
• 2 beers, Maier takes it (Shortly after I bought the previous round of drinks for us, I asked Dooley were Dan was. Dooley said getting the next round. I asked if Elwood was getting a beer for me too, and Dools said he didn't think so. When Dan returned I told him he should have gotten himself a beer too as I grabbed the two beers he brought over for Dools and I)
  
• Dan said to Kendra "Dramatic Pause....Save the last dance, for right now, I'm going to meet some Italian girls" (There was a group of mid 30s Italian women at one of the bars. They loved Dan and Dooley because they said they thought the women were more like 24.)
  
• They playing UNDER MY THUMB at the next bar..... Rolling Stones, good stuff (Elwood likes the music)
  
• CHEAALSEE, (Jealousy) SHITTY SONG, MR BRIGHTSIDE, WHEN WILL THIS SONG END (Cause I'm Mr. Brightside) (Elwood did not like this song as much obviously.)
• Yelling (?)
• Line (?)

As you may have been able to tell, Elwood was in charge of the paper and pen last night.

Last night was another fun night out after a great day of touring/learning, we don't want to retain much of the great history we learn I suppose.

We woke up today a little after noon (Elwood: "If I ran a hostel, breakfast would be from noon to 3PM. None of this 8-11am crap.") to prepare for the Prague Castle tour, which cost us 250 Czech Crowns (approx $13) which was well worth it in my opinion. If you look at the pictures, you'll quickly agree that Prague castle is pretty awesome, especially St. Vitus' Cathedral. Again, we learned a great deal about the history of Prague Castle, blah blah blah, learning crap for sure Mom, I promise, pinky swear even.

That's about all I feel like writing for now. We're supposed to meet up with Kendra and Alice again tonight for drinks so we'll bring the paper and pen again, although this night is actually intended to really be only a few drinks, but we all know what that can lead to. Gonorrhea.

Tomorrow, we're planning on checking out the Jewish and Spanish monasteries in Prague.

Dooley Blackouts: Still 1 as we all kept things under control last night