Four simple steps to becoming an alcoholic

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Neil and I have decided to become alcoholics.

And it's not that this seemed like a really good idea, or something we had thought about before the trip. However, the economics of Prague really seemed to make it the obvious choice, or, in our case, way of life.

The first step in us becoming alcoholics came about because we did not understand the currency. We've left the territory of the Euro and entered the land of the Czech Republic Koruny, which is a very mysterious entity indeed. Allow me to do a conversion:

75 Czech Republic Korunys is equivalent to 1.3 Hogs Heads, which is about the same as 1 Cow Liver. A Cow Liver is trading for 3 euro, which is $4.75 Canadian. So what you end up with is $1 Canadian = 15.2 Czech Republic Korunys. Follow?

Well, we couldn't do the math in our heads, so we took out about 3500 koruny each, which sounded like a lot. But it wasn't, and we had to take out a little bit more. Still, when you're trying to pay the bill at a restaurant and all you have is a 1000 koruny bill. It kind of feels rediculous. But, they accept them.

Step 2: Beer is cheap. Very very very very very cheap. Even at pubs. We were able to buy a half litre (one pint) of beer for as low as 20 korunys, or $1.33 Canadian. What else were we going to do but drink a lot of it.

Step 3: Czech beer is strong.... 10-12% strong!

Step 4: We like beer. In fact, thanks to the other steps, we've been drank at least 2 litres of beer each per night while in Prague. Practice makes perfect, I guess, because it no longer causes us to really feel drunk.

So there. It took us four steps to become alcoholics. That's eight fewer steps than it would take to become sober (according to the rules of AA).

I expect our alcoholism is only temporary, however, as the price of beer in Canada will make it all but impossible to maintain. Oh well. It's a good ride while it lasts!

Prague was great.... in part due to the reasons above. But also because it's really cool. It never really got bombed in the wars, so all the old buildings are still there.... and it's cheap. Our first night was spent in a beer gardens drinking cheep beer and eating cheap kolbasow while the Czech Republic played in the Euro cup. It was fun, but they lost.

The next day, we wandered the old town and bumped into some Canadians we met at our hostel in Berlin... so we went to a bar and drank cheap drinks for the rest of the evening. Good times.... It's funny how every day ends in "cheap drinks", isn't it?

We slept in the next morning.... until noon. And we kicked off the day with: cheap beer. And lunch. A good way to start any day. Some more wandering and sightseeing later, and we finsished the day with cheap beer and cheap food. We went to a street in the "new" part of Prague which boasts a ton of (cheap) bars as well as lot's of Prague's current art community activity. So it's kind of like the Whyte Avenue of Prague. It was cool.

Actually, we spent over half our time in the "new" part (partly because our hostel was there) and we really enjoyed it. I think at this point of the trip we're finding that we like to get away from the tourist crowds and drink and eat where the locals do... where it's cheap!

For our final day, we took a day trip to Kutna Hora, which is an hour east of Prague by train, and the furthest east in Europe we'll be going on this trip. It boasts a "bone church" which is a small church that contains the bones of 40,000 plague victims. Inside, there's a chandelier that contains every bone of the human body. It's pretty neat... unless you don't like human bones.... then it's creepy.... but not as creepy as the Catacombs in Paris.

We quickly toured the old town before catching a train back to Prague for, you guessed it, cheap beer and cheap food. Actually, this meal was bigger than the others due to a planning error (pretty much we didn't have time to eat lunch). It was very very satisfying.

Actually, we ate out everyday, for every meal. It's just so cheap that we had to take advantage of it. Most meals cost around $6 Canadian. I don't think there was any day when we spent more than $50 Canadian, including our accomodations. And the food was always really good.

One more thing. On our way to Prague we stopped in Dresden, Germany. This is an eastern German city with a lot of old builodings and history. So where did we go? The most modern and up-scale automobile manufactring plant in the world!

The Volkswagen Phaeton factory is completely glassed in, has (Canadian) hardwood flooring, and robots that deliver parts anywhere that the workers need them so that they can hand build the cars. It's extremely impressive. Even Neil, who hates cars, factories, and the future, really seemed to be blown away by it. You can check it out on the internet to see what it's like for yourself. Unfortunately, they do not allow pictures inside, so I've got nothing. I wanted to buy a Phaeton, you know, as a souvenir, but they run upwards of 130,000 euro. So I didn't. And couldn't.

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Photos

The Garden
At the palace

The palace church
A private church? It's huge!

The palace guards
With modern Prague in the background