Halloween 2009

Let me tell you how tough it is to find a Halloween costume in a country where they don't celebrate Halloween. Fortunately, one of my Czech colleagues helped me find a costume store in Brno where I was able to rent a costume.

The shop owner didn't speak English but luckily for me she spoke enough German that we could understand each other. I didn't have a lot of options to choose from but my convict costume only cost me 150 Kč (~ $8.60) for a week's rental.

The U.S. Marines in Bratislava threw a Halloween party last weekend. Their house is up on the hill in Koliba which is the posh part of town. We knew that the party would be fun but the thing we were all really looking forward to was having to get across town in costumes, with everyone looking as us like we're crazy. Of course, they tend to look at us like that anyway.
Naturally the party was fun and after we headed towards the Presidentka pub which has kind of turned in to one of our haunts. Click on any of these pics to better see them and there are lots more already posted on Flickr.

Hrad Devín & Old Town Bratislava

Halloween weekend was my fourth trip to Bratislava but the first time I've actually had the chance to see anything. Marcus & Janelle took me to see Devín Castle which is about a 20 minute bus ride from the city.

Hrad Devín is one of the three oldest castles in Slovakia. The castle is a ruin, destroyed by Napolean in 1809, so you can't actually go inside. The ruins overlook where the Danube and Morava rivers meet and you can see Austria across the water.

During the Cold War, this was one of the closest points to the west where many people tried to escape. Before you enter the castle grounds you come to monument remembering those who died trying to make it across.

After Devín, we walked through Old Town to take pictures. There is some very pretty architecture in the city center. Bratislava also has several quirky statues around town. Here are a couple of them...

Schoener Naci (Beautiful Ignaz) greets people walking down Rybarska brana street. The legend says he had lost his mind because of an unrequited love. Although he was very poor, he was walking the streets in Bratislava always well dressed for almost 40 years. The townies used to give him some food and he was, in return, giving flowers to the ladies passing by.

At the corner of Panska and Rybarska brana streets you find Cumil (The Watcher). It's up for debate if Cumil has just cleaned the sewer, is simply resting, or is looking up women's skirts. However, you're supposed to touch him for good luck.

It was a very cold day but we had so much fun and took lots of pictures. I still didn't make it to see the "Blue Church" so that will have to wait, until my next visit, some time after New Year's. There are a couple of hundered pictures out on Flickr of our trip to Devin and sightseeing in Bratislava.

Japanese Food in Bratislava

Two weeks ago, Marcus moved out of his old flat in Račianske Mýto. He was living in a panelák, a pre-fab concrete building that was popular with the communists, but more on paneláky in another post.

His new place is right in the center of Old Town. MTV could be here filming The Real World Bratislava or something because his place has one big, diverse mix of people. Marcus is from Atlanta, Eiko is Japanese and also works at IBM, Alessio is an Italian student, MJ is Korean and and is interning with the United Nations, and Dan is a Danish airline pilot.

Eiko has met some other people from Japan in Bratislava and had an Asian dinner party the night before Halloween. So Janelle and I had to make sure we scored invites. The food was awesome!!!! A few more pictures are out on Flickr.

Brněnská přehrada

The other day I met another American over here. Phillip is from Virginia and teaches English at Mendal University of Agriculture and Forestry. On the 28th, I went with him and his friend Lukáš to Brněnská přehrada (Brno reservoir).

Lake Brno is a 10 km long water reserve and you can take the tram to get there.

The lake is currently drained in order to clean it up.



However, in the summer there are lots of places for swimming and sunbathing. Plus there are cycling and walking trails around it. It was a nice day to just go walk around. Especially since we all had the day off.

The guys even had me try langoše. It's a Hungarian treat. Basically it is fried dough that is brushed with garlic butter, cheese and sweet ketchup. It doesn't sound like a good combination but it was really good.

Day of Establishment of the Independent Czechoslovak Republic

October 28th is the Day of Establishment of the Independent Czechoslovak Republic. This is not to be confused with Czech Statehood Day.

In 1918, after WWI and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...Bohemia, Moravia, part of Silesia and Slovakia, formed Czechoslovakia. 

In 1939, a major portion of the country was annexed by Nazi Germany. Czechoslovakia became an independent country again, after the end of WWII, and stayed that way until the end of 1992. Then the Velvet Divorce occurred and on 1 January 1993, the nation split in to the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.


So today celebrates the founding of Czechoslovakia, even though that country no longer exists. What's interesting to me is that it isn't a holiday over in Slovakia, so Janelle and Marcus had to work today.

Update 2022: Social media post from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mahenovo divadlo

The Mahen Theater is located at Malinovského náměstí (Malinovsky Square) on Rooseveltova 17. It's kind of cool that that the theater is on a street named after U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.


The theatre was opened on November 14, 1882. Originally, the Deutsches Stadttheater (German City Theatre) was the German opera house. After WWI it became Divadlo na Hradbách (Theatre On the Wall) when it passed hands to the new Czechoslovak state. The first dramatic advisor was Jíří Mahen, a Czech writer and playwright, and it was named after him in 1965.

Mahenovo divadlo was the first theater on the European continent to be fully equipped with electric lighting. While Edison didn't make it to the installation he did visit the theater 25 years later, in 1911. 

One of Edison's bulbs and a decorative copper case is on display next to the main staircase. The theater has been proclaimed as one of the National Technical Monuments of the Czech Republic.

The theatre is really beautiful. The architectural style of building exterior is neo-Renaissance while the interior is neo-Baroque. I can't wait to see what it looks like at night during a performance of some kind.

There are some more pictures of the theater already posted on Flickr.

First Care Package

Yeah!!! Yesterday I received my first care package from the U.S. Steven & Michael mailed me a box of goodies last Saturday and I received it on Friday morning. I'm surprised it got here so fast.


I swear that yesterday felt like Christmas because my boys hooked me up...yams, vanilla extract, grits, jello, Sriracha hot sauce, dried cilantro, Luzianne iced tea bags, Jamaican chicken soup mix, Hidden Valley ranch packets, Italian dressing, French onion soup mix, Knorr spinach dip mix, chili seasoning, sloppy joe seasoning, taco seasoning, bouillon cubes, packets for fajita marinade, gravy mixes, hollandaise sauce...

They also sent me Mach 3 razor blades and Degree. The razor blades I can get here but they are tragically expensive compared to the U.S. And to be honest I have not yet tried Czech deodorant. I've been told that it isn't that great. A stick of deodorant runs around $5 but I haven't seen any deodorant/anti-persperant together in one stick. Here I think you buy either deodorant or anti-persperant.

It's a good thing that Mom is also sending some yams because I am going to have a full flat for Thanksgiving. Steven & Michael are coming from Atlanta, plus the Bratislava crew and a couple of folks from IBM here. And since I remember what it was like being in the military overseas during the holidays, I also invited some of the Marine guards from the embassy in Bratislava. So far the mix is going to be American, German, Slovak, French, Spanish and Serbian. I can't believe that it's only about five weeks away.

Pizza Hut

We have McDonald's and KFC here in Brno and so far I have yet to go to either one. I'm saving them for when I absolutely need an American "fix." However, Marcus found a Pizza Hut in Bratislava so we went last weekend. Who knew I would get so excited about a Pizza Hut?!?


The pizza over here is not that great. The crust tends to be very thin and there's hardly any sauce on it. It tastes kind of like cardboard. People here normally squirt sweet ketchup or tartar sauce on it. And I have yet to see parmesan cheese or crushed red pepper on pizza here either.




Last Saturday was going to be a day of sightseeing in Bratislava but we eneded up looking for a flat for Marcus. We decided that while sightseeing could wait until next time, we still had to cross the bridge to Petržalka and visit the Pizza Hut located in a Tesco.


We started off with a caesar salad that looked really good. Until we took a bite and discovered that they didn't use caesar dressing...it was sour cream. Not the best thing I've had here in Eastern Europe. However, the pizza was awesome!!! It's probably a good thing we don't have one of these in Brno because I would be there at least once a week. But what I would not give for a Papa John's Pizza over here...

No Means "Yes"

It’s a big challenge anytime you move to another country; having to learn a new language and figure out a different culture. But it can be really confusing here when no means “yes”.

The Czech word for “no" is ne and the word for "yes” is ano. However, ano often gets shortened to either no or jo (pronounced "yo"). When I ask a question in Czech and the other person responds with no, I have to think…are they saying “yes” or are they trying to answer in English and actually mean “no”. It can be quite confusing at times!!!

Here’s another one that gets me –
The expression fakt jo means “really?” or “is that right?” But when Czechs say it you don’t hear the “t” so it sounds like “f*** you”.

I was floored the first time I heard this said at work. Especially, since it was from this really sweet girl to her manager. It took me a couple of minutes to figure this one out.

Numbers

Numbers are different over here. I’m not even talking about the metric system with its Celsius, kilos, grams, liters, deciliters, hectares, meters, etc. That will be another post. I mean the numbers themselves and how they are used are different.

Americans write the number “one” as a single line but then you can’t tell it from a lower case “L”. In Europe, a “1” has a long “flag” and it often looks like an inverted V.

The number “seven” has a line in the middle and sometimes has a crooked top line.

The number “nine” often looks like a lower case “G”.

No one here, except me I think, uses the pound sign “#” for number here.

Here decimals are commas and commas are decimals. In the U.S., “one and one-half” is written “1.50”. Here it is written as “1,50”.


When you count with your fingers, you start with your thumb.
If you hold up your index finger then people think you mean “two”. For “3” you hold up your thumb, index finger and middle finger. If you do it U.S.-style, with your thumb touching your pinky finger, then people here think you mean “4”.
The 24-hour clock is used in all official timetables. Sometimes a colon is used and sometimes a period is used. So you will see either 17:00 or 17.00 written for 5 o’clock p.m.

In Europe, dates are written as day then month; not month then day. Periods are used more often then slashes to separate the fields. So Christmas is 25.12.09 instead of 12/25/09.

Telephone numbers in Europe are just crazy! Every country has its own format. For example, here in Czech Republic the country code is +420, then you have a nine digit telephone number. But in some countries the telephone number is 5 digits and in some countries they have 13-digit numbers.

You dial “00” first to make an international call. Some countries have an extra zero in the number that you don’t need to dial when calling from another country. I don’t understand why the “extra zero” is there. I had to call a French mobile phone the other day so I had to remove the extra zero. However, the call still would not go through until I dialed “+” before the 00. I still don’t get how “+” is a number.