Brrrrrrrrrrno...

Interior of Church of M. Jan Hus (Red Church)
see all photos »

I got my internet to work last night! Suddenly, I had a bunch of friends. Funny how that happens. Casey is checking her email now, but it keeps kicking us off.

11:25 am

The biggest difference between Czech and American McDonald's is that you can get a beer with your Big Mac.

We are on the bus to Brno right now. The Czech Republic is made up of the united ancient states of Bohemia and Moravia. Prague is in the part that used to be Bohemia and Brno is in the part that used to be Moravia. The view is gorgeous; there are many mountains, woods, and rivers, and rustic houses and churches. There are fields and fields of yellow canola flowers, which our guide Pavel tells us they press to make oil. They add this to their fuel to conserve energy. They are all about that here. The lights in our Prague hotel room would not stay on unless a key card was in this slot thing near the door. Some choir members had to use the bathroom in the dark until they figured this out.

Brno city Map
see all photos »

People keep complaining about how different things are here. My attitude is "welcome to Europe." There are a lot of things here that we take for granted at home. For example, we have to walk more, pay for bathrooms, and try new things. I don't think of it as a negative thing. The only thing that's really upset or scared me was the second day when the tour bus dropped us off and we were given a walking tour and then we had the afternoon to ourselves. When we were about to go our separate ways, they told us that the bus would not be back to pick us up, nor would our guide be there to help us. We were expected to take the tram back on our own, meaning finding tickets, buying them, finding the station, and going to right direction on the two-way #17 bus. Tracy's group rode the wrong way for 45 minutes. Our group took the right direction, but got lost several times trying to find the ticket dealer (found in the subway station of all places) and finding the station itself. What an ordeal! The food here is good; there is not a ton of vegetarian things, but Czechs seem to love their tomatoes and potatoes.

Exterior of Church of M. Jan Hus (Red Church)
see all photos »

We just stopped at a Czech McDonald's and I ordered in Czech sounding out the words. I got salad with mustard vinaigrette dressing (interesting) and apple-grape salad. The biggest difference between Czech and American McDonald's is that you can get a beer with your Big Mac.

So far, Casey, Tracy, and I have had Czech Chinese and Czech Italian. Everything's been delicious, but we have to careful to say "yo sem vegetarianka" (the spelling is way off.)

The breakfast at the hotel is free and (I think) authentic. There's lots of bread, including wide breadsticks that youc an put eggs or cheese on or in. Of course, there's sausage and pastries. Central Europe seems to be big on that. The first day, I had "white cheese with fruit," which was thick yogurt with a hint of cheesecake flavor/texture with pieces of fruit. Delicious.

I had forgotten that you can get water with or without gas (carbonated or not.) The default seems to be with. Or, maybe it is because Czechs seem to love to rip tourists off. Our hotel staff sells internet time at outrageous prices and the minutes don't carry over to the next session unless you follow very specific rules, which, of course, they don't tell you. So my Euro-roommate Casey lost her minutes. They like to pretend to misunderstand you too. Lauren Lee ordered a glass of wine very specifically and they brought her (and made her pay for) a $40 bottle.