ježek
While i wait for my laundry, i decided to finish catching up. I think I'll have to add to my wardrobe as i discovered some rather unfortunate holes in my shirts. maybe i can just patch them, sit on the street with a fiddle, and make some spare crowns. seems like it works for other people.
So after encountering the plucky hedgehog in Kutná Hora, i caught a train to Jihlava, whose city mascot is, what else, the hedgehog. the story goes that the city was overrun with them at one point in time, so the town, as well as the brewery, adopted the image and ran with it. I met up with Luděk and Betty at the station, and then we headed to the zoo to see a singing/dancing group from Zimbabwee (as usual, forgive my spelling). Afterwards we took a quick tour of the zoo before heading home for a dinner of grilled veggies.
The next morning we took a trip to Telč, which is a small but beautiful town. The town square is composed of several colorful and ornate buildings leading up to the Zámek, which house a beautiful garden as well as an art exhibition that we perused. After a good amount of wondering, we set off for Jiřín for a music festival. The main reason that Luděk wanted to attend was for the Jazz big band that played several classic jazz hits as well as the more unconventional "wake me up before you go-go." Very nice. Also in attendence was the czech version of the Runaways- three fifteen year old girls with guitars and drums. Awesome. I enjoyed "smoke on the water" and "highway to hell," but they eventually lost me with Shakira and Avril Lavigne. But nothing gets czechs dancing quite like smoke on the water- and i have the picture to prove it. The finale of 4 non-blondes' "what's up" was probably my favorite part, especially as betty's energetic and flamboyant friend insisted on dancing with me. what's better than dancing with a gay guy at a festival in some small town in the czech republic? nothin'.
Betty's friends also found it incredibly amusing that i spoke czech. "so if i speak to you slowly, you will understand?" one girl asked in czech. "yeah," i replied. she laughed and turned to her friend, and i wondered if they would give me a cookie for my efforts. instead they gave me a beer with the familiar hedgehog on the label.
After quite a few bands and even one apparently famous czech pop star, we returned home for a dinner of pasta and wine. The next day i wondered around Jihlava and even ventured into the town's catacombs ("Katakomby"). i returned to the house when it started to look rainy to find that Luděk's daughter Zuzanna had returned from her holiday with relatives. A quick glance at the SERVAS sheet told me she was sixteen, and she quickly struck up a conversation with me with an innocent enough question. "where are you from?" and thus began a conversation that lasted FOUR hours. usually when the small talk peters out and there's really nothing left to say, hosts say, oh well i'll let you rest, and leave you be for a little bit. not so for Zuzanna, who, among other things, told me in depth about her school trip- including what they ate- and about her passion for the Olsen twins. "Have you seen New York Minute?" when i answered that the last thing that i had seen starring the Olsen twins was Full House, she frowned. "it is a pity." She had their extensive dvd collection- "sisters in Bahamas", "sisters in London," and so on. i bit my tongue and resisted the urge to ask if she had "sisters in rehab."
Luckily, after the said four hours, Luděk came home, and upon seeing me fashioning a noose out of my sweater, suggested we watch a czech movie. i let out a sigh of relief, but too soon- the english subtitles would not work and Zuzanna suggested we watch an Olsen twins movie. "sure, whatever you want," i said, inspecting the latch on the windows to see if i could jump out of them while she went to retrieve her dvd library. Once more i was lucky as luděk insisted we watch a czech movie, and so we ended up watching "wrong side up," which was a rather off beat black comedy that i enjoyed quite a bit.
the next morning i took off on a student agency bus for brno, and found myself a hostel pretty easily, though i'm going to start hunting for SERVAS hosts as its a pretty large and depressing place, housed in what is normally a secondary school. i really like the city though- and there are tons of fun day trips to take from here. I'll just look around as I'll have plenty of time to explore while i'm here for school, but its probably a good thing that i'm here as i'm pretty much forced to speak czech- my usual line of "mluvite anglický?" isn't really flying, so I'll finally have to break out my charts and vocabulary lists and start refreshing myself- and always have my czech-english dictionary handy, of course.
So after encountering the plucky hedgehog in Kutná Hora, i caught a train to Jihlava, whose city mascot is, what else, the hedgehog. the story goes that the city was overrun with them at one point in time, so the town, as well as the brewery, adopted the image and ran with it. I met up with Luděk and Betty at the station, and then we headed to the zoo to see a singing/dancing group from Zimbabwee (as usual, forgive my spelling). Afterwards we took a quick tour of the zoo before heading home for a dinner of grilled veggies.
The next morning we took a trip to Telč, which is a small but beautiful town. The town square is composed of several colorful and ornate buildings leading up to the Zámek, which house a beautiful garden as well as an art exhibition that we perused. After a good amount of wondering, we set off for Jiřín for a music festival. The main reason that Luděk wanted to attend was for the Jazz big band that played several classic jazz hits as well as the more unconventional "wake me up before you go-go." Very nice. Also in attendence was the czech version of the Runaways- three fifteen year old girls with guitars and drums. Awesome. I enjoyed "smoke on the water" and "highway to hell," but they eventually lost me with Shakira and Avril Lavigne. But nothing gets czechs dancing quite like smoke on the water- and i have the picture to prove it. The finale of 4 non-blondes' "what's up" was probably my favorite part, especially as betty's energetic and flamboyant friend insisted on dancing with me. what's better than dancing with a gay guy at a festival in some small town in the czech republic? nothin'.
Betty's friends also found it incredibly amusing that i spoke czech. "so if i speak to you slowly, you will understand?" one girl asked in czech. "yeah," i replied. she laughed and turned to her friend, and i wondered if they would give me a cookie for my efforts. instead they gave me a beer with the familiar hedgehog on the label.
After quite a few bands and even one apparently famous czech pop star, we returned home for a dinner of pasta and wine. The next day i wondered around Jihlava and even ventured into the town's catacombs ("Katakomby"). i returned to the house when it started to look rainy to find that Luděk's daughter Zuzanna had returned from her holiday with relatives. A quick glance at the SERVAS sheet told me she was sixteen, and she quickly struck up a conversation with me with an innocent enough question. "where are you from?" and thus began a conversation that lasted FOUR hours. usually when the small talk peters out and there's really nothing left to say, hosts say, oh well i'll let you rest, and leave you be for a little bit. not so for Zuzanna, who, among other things, told me in depth about her school trip- including what they ate- and about her passion for the Olsen twins. "Have you seen New York Minute?" when i answered that the last thing that i had seen starring the Olsen twins was Full House, she frowned. "it is a pity." She had their extensive dvd collection- "sisters in Bahamas", "sisters in London," and so on. i bit my tongue and resisted the urge to ask if she had "sisters in rehab."
Luckily, after the said four hours, Luděk came home, and upon seeing me fashioning a noose out of my sweater, suggested we watch a czech movie. i let out a sigh of relief, but too soon- the english subtitles would not work and Zuzanna suggested we watch an Olsen twins movie. "sure, whatever you want," i said, inspecting the latch on the windows to see if i could jump out of them while she went to retrieve her dvd library. Once more i was lucky as luděk insisted we watch a czech movie, and so we ended up watching "wrong side up," which was a rather off beat black comedy that i enjoyed quite a bit.
the next morning i took off on a student agency bus for brno, and found myself a hostel pretty easily, though i'm going to start hunting for SERVAS hosts as its a pretty large and depressing place, housed in what is normally a secondary school. i really like the city though- and there are tons of fun day trips to take from here. I'll just look around as I'll have plenty of time to explore while i'm here for school, but its probably a good thing that i'm here as i'm pretty much forced to speak czech- my usual line of "mluvite anglický?" isn't really flying, so I'll finally have to break out my charts and vocabulary lists and start refreshing myself- and always have my czech-english dictionary handy, of course.
posted by Liz at 1:15 AM
2 Comments:
It's rather strange to be relegated from running around Europe right along side you to all the way back here, and checking your bloggy-blog in anticipation with everyone else...regardless, it all sounds awesome and amazing and inspiring and...man, why am I back here? It's my second day of summer school. Slightly less awesome.
On another note, it's a little scary how impossible it is to escape from the clutches of those plucky little Olsen twins...
Thank God you were saved from the Olsen twins, yikes. Daniel and I love reading the Adventures of Liz Dykes! I think you should call your blog "Where in the World is Liz Dykes" Anywho, if you find another spare hedgehog, please bring him back for me. I'll love him and hug him and feed him and call him Earl. I hope you are having a blast and drink a beer for me! (I'll be legal soon!!)
-Dezzzzzzzzzzzz
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