PRAGUE (The Budweiser’s not that Belgian Crap)

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:45:22 +0000

Prague. The beautiful, compact central district, punctuated by charcoal-colored, fairy-tale towers, is balanced by leafy perimeter hills punctuated by mother-of-pearl, cubist villas – and apparently Kafka lived in every structure in between. The Soviet tanks have rolled out and McDonalds and “Prague Drinking Team” T-shirts have rolled in. According to a real Irishman, “This city was built on beer,” and all the sidewalks are paved with gold (or at least small granite stones – which, in any case, are more slip resistant). As the final destination of our tri-city journey, we arrived wearied but excited at finally experiencing Prague, a city that everyone else we’ve ever met had already visited!

They use asphalt in Harvard Yard

Posted in Prague Tagged: beers, Irishlanders, Kafka, McDonalds, Prague, Soviet Tanks

Where’s the @ at?

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:45:01 +0000

Our train arrived at the correct train station around the ungodly hour of 6am. The station hall, in the words of our Insight City Guide, is an “Art Nouveau structure…the ornate façade and the domed and decorative entrance hall remain very attractive.” However, as everyone actually arrives in the labyrinthine, Penn Station-wannabe basement, we still haven’t seen the main building to this day. Nonetheless, we were excited upon arrival, rolled our crap a mere one block over to our hotel, and were checked into our room in nine hours flat. Our burst of energy dissipated rapidly, despite the fact that I recalled sleeping well in our first-class compartment. My exhaustion was validated when April reminded me that we only slept about 4 ½ hours as we apparently over invested in to-go beers before boarding the train. Fortunately the lobby had a small room with two computer terminals offering free internet. Unfortunately, typing the @ symbol there is like attempting to locate the word “bling” in the King James Bible with Apocrypha. You see, it’s positioned as one of four options on the #2 key – not including #2 itself. I spent 15 minutes on the first computer trying to crack the code, but the best I could do through numerous multi-key permutations was come up with yet another symbol not even represented on the key. So I moved to the other computer and, go figure, a simple alt/ctrl/2 combo worked. After sifting through the three emails I’d received over the intervening five days, I woke April and off we went to see the city. Finally the cool temperature matched what all the guidebooks said (thus explaining why I’m in the same 2 short sleeve shirts in every damn Vienna and Budapest photo) so that was a treat. We came upon the main square and sat down at the fountain to get our bearings and soak up the rain.

False Promises

Posted in Prague Tagged: King James Bible, Lodging, Prague, Technology, Transportation, Weather

Czech Cinema

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:44:38 +0000

Some hippie flick / Gilligan’s Island???

Another absurd Czech film

Posted in Prague Tagged: Cinema, Prague, stupid crap

Eddie Lives!

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:44:11 +0000

Wandering around, with my handy homemade Google architecture map in hand, we walked by all of one building on my itinerary (The House of the Black Madonna, which houses a museum dedicated to Czech Cubism as I realized the day before we left…after it had closed for the evening). We poked our head into two souvenir shops, and collapsed on the fountain wall at the center of the Old Town Square where we attempted to get our bearings and vanquish our fatigue (it was now around 11 am). The square is a trip back to yesteryear, with a handful of monumental buildings from various eras – including the grand Baroque St Nicholas Church and the old City Hall, which is basically an enormous support for the famous 1410 astronomical clock. Other reminders of the distant past included the pre-automobile age, pedestrian-only atmosphere and numerous Iron Maiden T-shirts – harkening way back to the last millennium. I rubbed my eyes after the first two shirts walked by and, after three more passed, I darted over to the astronomical clock to verify exactly what century we were in. Obviously, we thought, the band must be in town which, less obviously, means that they still freaking exist. Very weird (Kafka’s town after all). Throughout the remainder of the day, we saw no less than 60 Eddie shirts and, for the first time in recent memory, I felt like whatever I was wearing might be at the forefront of fashion. Indeed the band is still hobbling and an Eddie-patch-bedecked Italian couple we befriended the following evening assured us that Bruce Dickenson sounded better than ever…despite the fact that they were both younger than any of my Maiden cassettes (refer to “No, Fleck U!”). Paranoid that the re-visitation of 1982 might make the wait for our 2008 hotel room unbearably long, we quickly headed back to, again, not check in.

Greetings from Balmy Praha! / Greetings from the Carter Administration!

Posted in Prague Tagged: Iron Maiden, Lodging, NOT architecture, Prague, Weather

SNL’s new “Two Wild and Crazy Guys!”

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:43:47 +0000

At least they appear to have jobs this time

Posted in Prague Tagged: Czech Brothers, Marketing, Prague, stupid crap

Wensceslas Rectangle

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:43:26 +0000

After our first hotel room rejection, we had walked over to the plaza/boulevard Wenceslas Square. We strolled through, eyeing the architecturally renowned Bat’a shoe store, a few landmark Art Nouveau masterpieces now housing casinos, and popped into the local McDonalds for some coffee and other breakfast products that in no way were going to pep us up. As we had noticed numerous sausage stands, the infamous Viennese Kasekrainer resurfaced in our mind. Therefore, after hotel room rejection #3, we headed back to see if we could procure one of those bad puppies. No dice. There were, indeed, plenty of pork-culinary selections but, alas, none lived up to the Austrian delight.

Diversity of architectural styles and ugly Red Sox caps in Wensceslas Square

1929 Bat’a Shoe Store at Night

Still sprinkling – but now owning two umbrellas – we then lurched over to the Charles Bridge. This medieval edifice seems less a bridge than a massive runway for approximately 210,453 tourists and 30 religious celebrities. The vibrant colors of “Prague Triathlon” T-shirts, questionable hairdos, football scarves, and innumerable Fannie-packs contrast nicely with the dark, weathered stone of the bridge and fraternal-twin towers. One of the towers apparently houses an elongated penny (or elongated zeton) machine so we climbed halfway up to no avail (2 days later, armed with more specific details, I climbed halfway +12 feet up to find it). We strolled across the bridge and did not commission a caricature portrait – which makes us cooler than most. We did, however, spot Iron Maiden warming up for the big show. It was swell.

Sea of touristas / April and JC / Iron Maiden jam session

Harry Potter gets all the toothless chicks

Posted in Prague Tagged: Charles Bridge, Cuisine, Elongated Coins, Harry Potter, Iron Maiden, Kasekrainer, Prague, Weather

The Crack Chronicles

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:43:01 +0000

Crack in motion

April, a cold ½ liter, and crack

Art for crackheads

Posted in Prague Tagged: Art, Crack, NOT architecture, Oh no you didn't..., Prague, stupid crap

No No, U-Fleku!

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:42:39 +0000

After FINALLY procuring our hotel room, we napped for a few and emerged refreshed. I grabbed my homemade map so I could pretend to look at seminal examples of early 20^th century architecture as we headed over to a microbrewery that April found in our Insight guide book (see ya Mich!). The place – Novomestsky – was nice. A comfy basement environment with good, inexpensive beer and Redsox logo breadsticks, it nonetheless failed to rev our engines. Therefore, we moved on to another location.

Go Sox! / Charting out the next beer hall

It turns out there’s a network of beer halls with the letter U affixed to their name. They vary in size and atmosphere and all serve only one brand of beer. The first two we visited were decent places (serving Budweiser and Pilsner Urquell respectively) but were also a bit quiet. So we left each after one beer (or one April beer / three Michael beers) and headed to one that sounded more promising. This joint, titled U Fleku, is known for its lively atmosphere enabled by a pitch black brew, accordionist, and some cinnamon drink called a Becherovka that our guidebook advised us to avoid (we weren’t listening). Additionally, the seating is family style so we actually managed to get folks to talk to us. That evening we sat with a lovely couple from Oslo. They had once lived in Seattle so they were well prepared for the US gringo/alcohol combination that we gladly provided. Our pleasant discussions led to an insistence that we absolutely must visit Norway. The sales pitch included the fact that fuel was $12 a liter, beer $9 a pint and smokes $26 a pack! Obviously tempting, we replied, “um, perhaps, in few years.”

April, Karl, Kjellaug, and potent cinnamon flavored gasoline

“Play Free Bird man!”

As Expert Travelers, we’re always looking for new experiences. Thus the next evening we returned to the exact same place. This time we were seated in a different room chock-full of Italian and Hungarian Olympic enthusiasts (as oxymoronic as that may be). It started off a bit tepid, but quickly picked up once the beer guy finally stopped ignoring us. Soon we were joined by the Italian Iron Maiden fan club, a inside-the-beltway type named Patrick – whom we had met earlier at the other U bar we returned to again– and a few more Italians thrown in for good measure. The accordionist correctly assumed I must be a Texan due to my intoxicated stature and played The Yellow Rose of Texas. April was then utterly flabbergasted that I could converse with the Italians for an hour and a half straight about 80’s heavy metal. We avoided the Becherovka this time. A swell evening indeed.

My friend’s shirt showing Eddie plowing over Philip Johnson’s AT&T Building

The U Flecku illuminated clock says “Flecku” to would-be photographers

Posted in Prague Tagged: beers, Iron Maiden, Prague

Raaaandom…

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:42:06 +0000

Yeah, dont worry about itCrystal clear at 35mph / Prague ashtrayApril and a David Ortiz ”neck massager” Alrighty then…. (wait, I thought Picasso is dead)

Catherine Zeta Jones

Spouses can also be Instruments of Torture

Roy Rogers with Rabbit Girl crossing?? / Thanks for blocking the left side of the escalator

Catherine Zeta Jones? / White Trash ensemble (note my cute puppy lighter

Finding the Red Roof Inn was a bitch

Bruce Dickinson solo tourTime to segue out of this stupid crap

Posted in Prague Tagged: Engaging the Context, Prague, stupid crap

Pushing the Boundaries

mjgrogan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:41:44 +0000

Feeling well rested, it was obvious to me that the second day was perfect for seeing the Jean Nouvel ING offices, Adolf Loos’s Winternitz house and another poised way up on a distant hill, a grouping of Joseph Chocal’s Rondocubist works in Vysehrad, Gehry’s Fred and Ginger, and so on. Wisely I failed to mention this itinerary to April, saying only “lets start at a shopping mall, J” (across from the Nouvel), and off we went. My seamless intuition told me to exit the lengthy station at the wrong end – a long ass walk from “the mall.” We finally got there, walked inside, and looked at leather bags for the longest 2 minutes of the trip. We exited promptly and walked over to the glorious Nouvel building which April found a bit lame (as did I. It presents a forced dynamism in response to its corner site – sort of like Sally Struthers squeezing into a stringed bikini simply because a beach is nearby). Then, to add insult to injury, I quietly walked us all the way back to where we began and then headed toward the hilltop neighborhood. About halfway up – as the fourth city bus of unknown destination whizzed by – April broke the ominous silence with a simple question, “Where the f%$k are we going? If we’re not close I’ll just stand right here and you can meet me because I’m so over this walking-up-hills-to-see-architecture crap.” I assured her it was right around the corner and, surprisingly, nothing more was said throughout the ensuing 20 minute climb (coincidentally to the intersection where all the busses stop).

Nouvel rendered in cheap curtain wall

The Loos Winternitz, while not exactly obscure (it was his last built house), was unknown to our Insight City Guide which erroneously stated that his Muller house was the only one in town. I attempted to relay the coolness of that factoid to April but, as I was previously advised, she was over such crap. So I quickly took my snapshots through and over the inevitable walls and shrubbery, pretended to get something deep out of the experience, and back down we went.

Winternitz and the weeble-wobblesque Pick Residence by Arnost Weisner

Of course, the day was young, so I wanted to get us to the Gehry building next as I thought that weirdness might positively sway her. However, our location favored hitting the Chocal buildings next – so I went for it. That portion went smoothly, except for a seven minute argument about the relative cost of a 10oz juice versus a rocket booster-sized Pepsi Light (about a 300 percent price disparity per ounce, but I was thirsty and the juice looked very appealing, though it didn’t necessarily taste that great). The buildings, exemplars of the Rondocubism style that swept Prague’s architectural community for exactly 17 months, were mostly well maintained and certainly worth the visit (for me anyway).

Chocal’s hood (note the Cathedral up on a hill that we sure as hell weren’t climbing)

We finally arrived at the Gehry masterpiece. It seems drastically smaller than I recalled from past publications, and the swooping dress was not a hermetically sealed, finished curtain wall as I somehow previously imagined. Nonetheless, it’s mostly worth seeing, and even April said “wow!,” or “that’s kinda cool,” or maybe “oh,” or was it “can we go now?” I don’t recall exactly…

Much smaller than expected

Upskirt shot

Posted in Prague Tagged: architecture, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Loos, Prague, Rondocubism, Sally Struthers, weeble-wobble