Anděl: září 2006

Čtvrtek, září 28, 2006

Terror threat put Prague on edge

Saturday afternoon, warm, sunny with a bit of breeze, in one word, perfect weather. Claire and I just trekked to Namesti Miru for the Burcak Festival. A band is setting up their stuff on the stage. We’ve already got a cup of Burcak in our hands, and got all excited when a bagpipe and a harp showed up on the stage. Anyway, you can tell we are totally ready to get drunk at 3pm with bagpipe music. Then my phone rang, from home.

- Mom, “I saw news on TV that there’s an high alert about a terrorist threat in Prague yesterday, is everything alright there? Curfew or anything?”
- Me, looking around, sipping the young wine, confused, “Huh? Alert? Terrorist threat? Well I’m standing in front of a pretty church, in the center of a park with a bunch of old Czechs, drunk tourists, and a guy wearing a T-shirt saying "Hawaii is not America", drinking wine, and enjoying live music… Didn’t hear anything about the alert… at least it doesn’t seem to be the most important thing right at this moment…”

I hang up the phone and told Claire about this. We are both like “Curfew? Meh? Look around! Hahaha~~”

Monday night I took our new arrival Aibek out for a touristy walk – Castle-Bridge-Old Town Square routine. Then I saw armed policemen patrolling around in pairs. I remembered my Mom’s phone call and was all “holy shit, WTF!”

Then here comes the belated news on Wednesday:

Prague remains on high alert following a terrorist threat Sept. 23–24 that sent hundreds of armed security forces downtown to guard train stations and tourist attractions.

The nature and source of the threat were not made public, though officials said it was the most serious the country had ever faced.

"We wanted to prevent panic by informing the public beforehand," new Interior Minister Ivan Langer told journalists Sept. 24.

At press time, few details have been made public. (The Prague Post)

Some are pissed off that the public wasn’t informed earlier about this threat.

But well… I’m feeling pretty excited about it right now. Thank God the Burcak Festival wasn’t ruined. Life is beautiful, and Burcak rocks!

Pondělí, září 25, 2006

New Intern Tips – Picking a vegetarian restaurant in Prague

For all those who’ve been here, you know “vegetarian” and “Prague” don’t get along too well… it just doesn’t sound right in one sentence. The following conversations take place with high frequency:

Customer: Do you have vegetarian food?
Confused waitress: Vegetarian? Hmmm, we have this pasta with chicken.

Customer: Sorry I thought I ordered the potato soup and you said there wasn’t any meat when I asked.
Friendly waiter: That’s right, there’s no meat here.
Customer: But the soup itself… it’s meat soup.
Friendly waiter: (Long pause)… But there’s no meat in this soup.

Visitor: So, what’s typical vegetarian food here?
Host: Fried cheese, and potato pancakes.

It takes a lot of effort for a vegetarian to feel comfortable and “safe” here (well ok I know a Chinese can’t talk). Still, there are a few good options for vegetarian food in town and when I say vegie, it’s some real stuff, not the random “vegetarian salad with chicken breast or Italian special dried ham” in the penguin restaurant around the corner.

Albio

Claims to be the only organic restaurant in the Czech Republic. Good food, good decoration, and good atmosphere. Their pumpkin soup is just brilliant… SPLENDID! Be careful though it’s organic food, not 100% vegetarian, which means you will find “organic beef” on the menu. Be prepared. Their organic food shop next to the restaurant is impressive, too. Well, so is the price!

Clear Head

A tearoom “project”. Asian style. A good tea collection. Food is reasonably priced, and good. Actually, very good. A quiet place to chill out in over a cuppa tea and good conversation…. Quiet probably because they don’t serve beer there. First time I found this place and told people about it everyone was like “cheap, vegetarian, good food, non-smoking, no pivo… wait, in Prague?” Yes, in Prague, a city that never ceases to surprise you. And what’s more interesting? A piece of tourist information for you – It’s located in the shortest street in Prague. I hope it won’t take too long for you to find this place among the altogether 11 houses in this street.

Café FX - Radost

Famous. The best vegetarian restaurant in town in terms of food quality. A good variety of pure vegetarian food, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Mediterranean, American, etc. A bit pricey but worth it. Well decorated. A nice establishment indeed. Make sure you check out their cocktail menu. The drink names are just… exotic. They seem to have a good brunch menu too. I know I’ve been talking about it for a whole year. If I were ever going to be able to wake up sober in the AM on a Sunday, I will make it… one of these days…

Country Life

Not that I’ve tried their food. But it seems to be easygoing and not pretentious. Very simple canteen style. You pick your food, weigh it, grab a seat and bite or take away. Nothing complex. It has an organic product shop attached too which is also worth checking out.

Beas

There are quite a few Indian restaurants in Prague but Beas turns out to be an all time favorite. Your stomach will explode with a set menu of 75 Kc (2.5 EUR). I don’t have to say too much about Indian food… it’s just the bestest. Located in one of the side streets around Old Town Square, right behind Tynsky Church, Beas is almost the best place for you to take a rest and fill your tummy after an exhausting walking tour being irritated by the overpriced restaurants in the same area trying to rip you off. Props to Danka who took us there on my first tour around the town. Good call.

Cool thing that there are more and more vegetarian restaurants opened in Prague lately, and more and more restaurant are adding vegetarian section in their menu, even though you still need to keep your eyes wide open when you choose your food.

Dobrou chut.

Středa, září 20, 2006

Nation 2 Nation

The season is on!

Date	Highlight	Club
19.9.2006	Welcome	Exit
26.9.2006	Czech	Face2Face
3.10.2006	Italy	Mecca
10.10.2006	USA	Exit
17.10.2006	Germany	Face2Face
24.10.2006	Austria	Radost FX
31.10.2006	Canada	Face2Face
7.11.2006	France	Mecca
14.11.2006	Finland + Denmark	Radost FX
21.11.2006	Sweden	Exit
28.11.2006	Spain	Face2Face
5.12.2006	Mexico	Radost FX
12.12.2006	Award ceremony	Face2Face
19.12.2006	Good Bye Party	Exit

Úterý, září 19, 2006

Photo of the weekend

Guess what Al just said which brought about Claire's classy look. The winner gets a free beer.

Pondělí, září 11, 2006

New Intern Tips

OK apparently there is a common misconception about the previous postings on this blog which leads to an even worse misconception that I am an alcoholic (which is so very NOT true by the way). I admit that I never wrote useful posts for example how to pick a gym, announcement of the Grand Reunion Hawaii 2010/2011, or Club Andel hosting heads-up rule like other contributors did, all you find here from me is drunken stories and photos (someone sees the purpose of blogs are a) brag about your travels and b) get more hits. There should be c) brag about your drinking, I might add), but I did co-write something that everyone agrees to be "sooo true that it's not even funny". Alright, so much for the weak argument. After a lazy weekend of walking around in the beautiful sunshine, picking on Gokkie and smelling dog shit lying on the grass in Kampa Park, I decided to start trying to be useful.

So here we go, New Intern Tips Episode III – pick a tearoom in Prague. (Nice try, eh?)

All the Praha people who know me, I can see the big evil grin on your face right now, because I know you know what I'm going to talk about. Yes, shisha (hookah, nargile, waterpipe, however you call it).

Most of the tearooms in Prague serve shisha which fits well in the relaxing setting and chilling style of this city. Some of them don't, meaning pure tea, no smoking, no pivo, which is pretty cool too but they don’t fall in the topic of the day sorry (I had you fooled for a second with the bold headline didn't I!).

Siva

My personal favorite in Prague that so far gets the most hits from the Andel crew. Siva has four tearooms in Prague in different styles:

Siva in Old Town Square, Middle East style, free belly dance show, two floor place with a small private room downstairs. Good tea. Has the most complete shisha tobacco collection in town (even pistachio, coconut, choco-mint, you name it). Has a good tea+shisha shop inside the venue where you can equip yourself very well. Closes relatively late (23:00 during the week and 23:30 during weekend, good for a pre-party cup of tea and shisha). Cons: unimpressive food, slow service (waiters are probably smoking away themselves so sometimes you may even have to help yourself to the coals), a bit far from Andel (Add: Masna 8, closest Metro stop: Namesti Republiky). Shisha price: 98 Kc (3 EUR).

Siva in Namesti Miru, decorate in a more Asian style with three separated room, lots of couches to pass out on when you feel lazy because that's probably what the atmosphere will make you. Good tea. Closes late (24:00) on weekends. Less packed than the one in Old Town Square, so quieter too. From experience I figure their shisha runs better than the one in Old Town Square, cheaper too: 89 Kc for one.

The other two tearooms of Siva are both in Praha 7, never tried, but keen to check out.

Dobra Cajovna

Probably the largest tearoom franchise in the Czech Republic and has the best service and interior design. I ran into their shop in Cesky Krumlov and it was immediately my favorite tearoom. The Dobra Cajovna tearoom in Prague has a very favorable location: Vaclavske Namesti. The flip side though is it closes early: 21:30 on weekdays. So if you want to chill out after dinner or work this place will make you rush.

Cajovna Daruma

First of all, it's close to Andel, very close. A small room with carpeted and cushioned floor space looks very comfy and cosy. However the problem of being small is it's obviously pretty packed all the time. Their shisha is slightly more expensive: 115 Kc. But I like all those Tibetan motet flags hanging from the ceiling.

There's also one Café/tearoom at the corner of Al, Richie & Neil's place but the setting isn't cozy. What add points though are the good food, friendly waiter, and a mysterious shisha tobacoo called "exotic".

Dahab is famous for good food and good belly dance show but it's too luxurious for us. We are cheap. Plus they didn't even want to spare us a piece of charcoal last time when Mix Master was in town and all we wanted was to light up his Egyptian shisha in Andel. At last it was Siva who did the trick for us. Salut!

If you find the tips helpful I'm glad you read through the post and proved that I can be useful.
If you know more of good shisha places in Prague I'm all ears.
If you also enjoy shisha or chilling out over a cuppa tea you are more than welcome to join us in our routine Wednesday shisha night (you need something to carry on with for the week! Drop me an email or leave a comment with your email address to sign up and I’ll keep you updated).
If you just started smoking shisha my suggestion is don't indulge yourself. I know I can’t talk. But again, Gabriele, no you are not supposed to see stars and circles when you close your eyes nor can you fly after a shisha session. So I'm glad you enjoyed it, but you need a break. :)

[Update] Bolero, Masarykovo Nadrazi 12. In Alice's words, "they haven't decided what kind of restaurant they wanna be. It's a Mexican-Thai restaurant with shisha; salsa and karaoke on week days and Belly dance on weekends". It turned out last night that no karaoke was actually going on apart from the disturbing music video playing on the wall in a tearoom with oriental setting; they ran out of tea pots to serve so they had to recycle half of our pots so that they serve tea to the other half, wtf; and their shisha costs 120 Kc while one of the pipe keeps falling off the base, wtf again. Good thing that both hookah's worked very well which won back all the points. Our good ol' hookah never fails us, huh?

[Update 2] Siva in Namesti Republiky is ruled out. Siva boycotting has officially started since last night. "Sorry, one shisha, one coal. You can't add coals.... Just tourists." WHAT THE FUTSK!