Week 2: A Search for tacos and a Trip to Slovakia

Ahoj!

Last time, I finished just before talking about the weekend. Friday, one of the Czech roommates in our apartment building invited us to go with her to a wine festival. It was really nice. I didn't get to have any wine, but there were enough people there for me to assume that it's generally a pretty popular event. I grabbed a grilled klobása (sausage) and hung out with the rest of the group in front of the stage where a live band was playing.

The music was interesting. I couldn't understand a thing they were saying, but it wasn't unpleasant to listen to. Saturday was quite a day as well. If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I love Mexican cuisine, more specifically tacos. If you were to ask my parents what I eat at home the most, they'd probably say tacos. I knew that if I could find one good Mexican restaurant here in Prague, I'd feel more at home. So, the night before, I searched for Mexican restaurants in Praha (Prague)  and the results were few, but seemed promising for the most part. One place, Tacos El Paisa, caught my attention right away (obviously because it has the taco in its name) and I immediately put a plan into place to track this place down, and grab some of their grub. So Saturday afternoon, one of my roommates and I set off on a journey across town to find this Mexican eatery. Almost an hour and a half later, we arrive at the address where the restaurant was supposed to be...and nothing was there. Well, something was there, but it didn't look like tacos were coming out of there. I thought we had traveled halfway across town for nothing, but we were able to see the Vyšerad Cemetery and the Church of St. Peter and Paul.

I returned to the apartment feeling a little defeated because I didn't find the restaurant I wanted, but I put that aside to prepare for the ballet performance that the group was going to see at Národní Divadlo (National Theater). It was Krabat, some kind of fantasy story about a boy who becomes a sorcerer's apprentice, but must defeat him when he realizes there is black magic involved, or something like that. I'm not entirely sure to be honest. It kinda creeped me out in the first act and it got a little confusing from there. I wasn't able to take pictures during the show, but the theater was beautiful.

Photo cred: Allie Dulles '16

Because I was not satisfied with how my search for tacos on Saturday ended, I decided I would try another place, Las Adelitas, near the Astronomical Clock tower in Old Town. I went alone this time, and after almost getting lost (twice), I found the place. Las Adelitas is a restaurant and tequila bar owned by actual Spanish-speaking Mexicans in Prague. As someone who is more familiar with Spanish than Czech language, it was so refreshing to be in a place where I can understand most of what's happening without a Czech language overload. I ordered tacos de carne asada and a mango margarita, and just like that, Las Adelitas became my new favorite restaurant in Prague. They serve nopales (prickly pear cactus) with just about every dinner item on the menu, which I wasn't too excited about at first, but I actually grew to enjoy it.

Next, we began our 2nd week of classes. On Tuesdays, our professor typically invites us over to his apartment in a different part of the city for movie night. This particular Tuesday however, I had promised my Czech roommate that I would go with him to this restaurant that he really wanted us to go to because he said they had the best roasted duck in town.

It was alright I guess. I don't think I'll be going way across town just for this. I'm really not a fan of the whole cabbage/sauerkraut thing that they have going on here with just about every traditional Czech dish.

Wednesday night, we left on a sleeper train for Slovakia, probably the most uncomfortable sleep I've ever had in my entire life. The beds were essentially on top of one another and the actual room we shared wasn't really big enough for all three of us to stand in at once. I'm not used to sleeping in such a restricted space because I'm a relatively tall guy.

Photo Cred: Joshua Kwan '17

We get to Slovakia, walked to what seemed to be some random hotel and enjoyed a hot breakfast buffet before heading back out for our first excursion of the day because who needs sleep, right?
Spiš Castle or Spisšký hrad:

This place was pretty cool. I feel like I didn't learn much about the actual history of the place though because I'm sure I'd be putting that here instead of babbling about nothing. There was this torture chamber inside. I took pictures of some of the things in there, but most of them came out too dark, so I won't bother posting them. There was this blurry, little gem though:

I found it hanging on a wall above some contraption (a torture device probably)

As we were leaving the castle, the group opted to go explore the Medieval town of Levoča. I thought this place was nice. I did not appreciate all of the staring though. I was stared at so much here that it made me incredibly uncomfortable to walk around.

Church of St. James

Cage of Shame

The Cage of Shame was a little underwhelming. I'm not entirely sure why, but I suppose that I was expecting it to be situated over a pit of sorts. Back in the 16th century, they used the Cage of Shame to punish minor delinquencies. Part of me wanted to take a picture from inside of the cage, but it was unfortunately locked. We left Levoča for Novy Smokovec, where our hotel was stationed not far from the base of the mountains that we essentially came to Slovakia for. The next day, the group geared up for the hike up the mountain. Except me, of course, because the idea of struggling up and over a mountain for 7 hours didn't sound very appealing to me. However, if you want, you can read more about their treacherous journey here. I had a different plan for that day. I wanted to do a little exploration around the area. I took a tram down the mountain for a gorgeous view of the greenery.

Afterwards, I took the tram all the way to the other end of the line to take a cable car up a different mountain. Unfortunately, tickets were sold out, so I just kinda walked around for a bit before heading back the the hotel for some rest. I thought I would be able to try again the next day, but we had a different plan: cave exploration. So, we took a bus to the base of a tatra mountain and hiked almost 900m up to the Belianska Cave entrance. I took a picture of the view I had when I stopped to catch my breath and was almost at the top. One person was paid for to take pictures inside the cave, so some of these are his pictures. Also, it was pretty cold in there.

Credit: Joshua Kwan '17

Credit: Joshua Kwan '17

Credit: Joshua Kwan '17

Credit: Joshua Kwan '17

Credit: Joshua Kwan '17

Our final day group activity in Slovakia was rafting down a river bordering Slovakia and Poland (one on each side of the river).

  

It was a great experience, until it started pouring rain 20 minutes in. We returned to Prague on another night train the following morning in time for class that afternoon. Like I said before, who needs sleep, right? Okay, well that's all for now. Next time, I'll talk about our first clinic visit (because sometimes I forget I'm here to study psychology) and our next trip, to Kutna Hora.

Thanks for reading!

Čau!

-Brandon