Everything is brrrr in this freaking country

Firstly - I phoned TVU the other day and they found it in their hearts and their un-bureaucratic sides to disclose over the phone that I passed all my modules last semester! This I am really bloody relieved about remember how much I worked my ass off and probably endangered my life drinking so much Red Bull towards the end of the hand in rush, and means I will be going back to finish my degree in September - January 2010 as planned. Secondly, my sleeping pattern has been buggered ever since my getting stuck in Bratislava fiasco, as this resulted in me sleeping for 12 hours the next day, and since then I have been staying awake until the sun begins to rise. To put a stop to this and to celebrate my results, I devised a cunning plan which was about as cunning as a fox who has just become professor of cunning at the university of Olomouc.

Last night, I went out and raved until 4am at free mondays at Roxy, which I already knew about from last summer in Prague and it is a very unique experience as far as clubbing in Prague is concerned, as it's on a monday night, free, starts at 10pm and is always packed out by 11pm. The music is of the simple tech-house if-you-don't-get-it-focus-on-the-hi-hats variety, and its listeners are perhaps the weirdest crowd I've ever laid eyes on - the clientelle is comprised of about 5% locals and 95% absolute oddball backpackers who not only obviously have no sense of travelling light and somehow manage to find space in their bags to pack ridiculous shoes and snazzy shirts and dresses, but deem it necessary to turn up to a rave, in a dirty old room, with a huge soundsystem and humidity which really favours going wearing shorts and no shirt over anything else, wearing this stuff. I amused myself for a long time with the likely impression that guys come out there to get cheaply drunk and try and pull some "easy local women" - only to find out that there aren't even any Czech girls there, and that drinks go at hyped up Náměstí Republiky tourist bait prices which work out much the same as most places in western Europe.

Anyway, after a long time getting lost in the grooves, bouncing and refuelling on Kofola, I walked down to the hlavní nádrazí for the second part of my plan - get the EuroCity that leaves at half 5, doze off for a bit and wake up in Brno two and a half hours later, then spend the day exploring that city at last. I'm kinda fed up of waiting for an excuse to go back there, since it was definitely a part of my to-do list while in this country, and I did plan to do it on the way back from Budapest - though of course, not even making it back to Prague until 10pm, wouldn't even have had a second to walk up to Petrov again. My plan in coming here was basically, spend the day here, go back in the evening on the last sensible train which left at quarter to 9, and get home and straight to bed at a sensible time.

After a long meditation session outside Petrov to wake myself up and some breakfast, I headed down to my first sightseeing destination on the screeching, wailing šalina (thats Brnese hana dialect for a tram - from german "elektrische line") and on the way remembered that Katka and I had agreed to let each other know if we were ever in each others' cities - as I remembered this, my loneliness got the better of me and we arranged to meet up, but since she was in Prague, this would be after she got back - at 8pm, meaning I would be endowed with taking the zombík back to Holešovice and therefore not getting home til 5am... quite obviously I wasn't going to refuse, so I think this is the point where Blackadder says "you see Baldričku, there is a slight flaw with your cunning plan..."

However, not giving an airborn sex act about my sleeping pattern any more and now feeling rather excited, I began my sightseeing at the Villa Tugendhat, a little bit out of town, which for some reason or other is a UNESCO world heritage site - I'll give it one prop, it's probably the only such site in the Czech Republic which doesn't have "Bohemia Crystal" shops and stalls selling crass t-shirts that say things like "PRAHA DRINKING TEAM" surrounding it. It was basically this rather depressingly box-like house which a board informed was a "vital inspiration for modern architecture", with a vast garden which seemed to have a stunning view of the old town, Petrov, Špilberk and on to the slums, except I could only see snatches of it as the whole thing was walled off by a very sinister metal fence with a notice informing that entry was by tour only, but no indication (at least not in any tongue I understood) as to where or when the tours were - the whole area was about as dead as Kutná Hora. So, the enigma of this rather odd UNESCO site defeated me and I took the šalina back to the centre to have a good look around Špilberk.

I swear down, I must have been executed here in a past life or something, because I could literally have spent forever there. The only thing that was stopping me from doing so was that I was beginning to really, seriously tire myself out walking around and around the castle, which sits atop a hill and is surrounded by spiralling paths through the castle gardens, which offer amazing views over the rest of the city from each side, which I had experienced last summer with Katka, except at night. Eventually I felt my feet killing me and retired to KFC for a rest.

Afterwards I attempted to reach the Gregor Mendel & genetics museum. On a side, to all of you slaves of the English school system who were educated, as I was, that he was "Austrian" - he was actually born in Czech Silesia and spent most of his life in Brno, which at the time both belonged to Austria-Hungary. So him being Austrian is about as questionable a fact as Antonín Dvořák being "Austrian", and if you are wondering, why there's a museum about him in Brno. Anyway, I decided I will save this for another time, perhaps the museum night in Brno whenever I happen to be in the country for it, which I'm sure will happen. The road leading down to the old town was completely wrecked and thus completely bez šalin - and while it would have only been 20 minutes walk, I really wasn't up to any more walking, and thus retired to the main town square to chill and scribble for a while.

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to wake up in various cafés, the first of which served me the most amazing hot chocolate ever, it was more like warm cream with a bit of molten chocolate residue at the bottom - kind of energising! I then sat writing the most part of this entry in another bar with free wi-fi drinking lovely creamy Starobrno, and feeling a lot more awake, waiting for Katka who unfortunately never showed up, so I spent the rest of the evening in this bar chatting to people back home over the internet in this café drinking beer, which was just a bit surreal, and then the same again from the KFC which for some reason has free wifi. Even more surreal.

Eventually headed back to the hlavní nádrazí in Brno which I've decided is my least favourite station in the country... decaying and closed after 10pm or something silly so you have to go in through this subway to get the zombie train. Was a nice ride - had a good sleep on the way, however I can't stand the fact that it for some reason goes to Praha-Holešovice rather than Praha-hl. n. and thus leaves us stranded in cracktown at 4am. Back in Břevnov at 5:30. Sleeping pattern not sorted, and on that note I am off to pillow. Pics and vids to follow when I wake up.

What an odd excursion that was.

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Part of trip: Summer of lost and confused

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