Česky Roundup Part I!
Okay, word reaches me that this blog has been neglected....What do you want?! I was busy and then travelling! Vultures....

Anyway, I'll attempt to roundup and summarize all my experiences that aren't too embarrassing to publish (not that there were that many...and none involve vomit) and just my general impressions of Czechs, the Czech Republic, a little bit of Slovakia (sorry Slovakia!), and just general things. Yes. So now then....on to....that stuff...

Okay, so public urination. It's all the rage. Seriously. Guys just find a none-too-secluded corner, whip it out, and take care of things. I at least had the sense/courtesy to find secluded places. Geez. And I hear women are known to sometimes do the same thing. But I didn't see that. Thank god.

Dogs are also just let to run free. Sometimes they have leashes. But usually not. And they let them go EVERYWHERE. Public transportation, restaurants, wherever. Once I was just walking down the street, in a not terribly busy area, and this polar bear turns the corner. Except it's not a polar bear, it's a dog, but about up to my ribs in height. And it's so silly looking I started laughing. Okay. But, if you recall the attitudes toward public urination, I bet you can figure out the attitude toward cleaning up after dogs....

The only sign like this in the Czech Republic

So the language. Some of you (or all of you who would actually read this thing) are aware that I picked up the language fairly handily. I received two awesome compliments about my language. After two weeks in Prague someone told me that I spoke more Czech after two weeks than many westerners speak after years. And the day before I left on my logical trip to London, Bratislava and Brno, someone refused to believe that I had only been there for a month. I know and you know all this is only because I speak Russian, but that wasn't something I admitted to the Czechs, or if I did, I immediately took it back based on their reaction.

Some people think that Russian is an ugly language and that Czech is quite beautiful, but I heartily disagree. I mean Czech's not bad, I have even referred to is as a "Krasny Jazyk" (Beautiful Language), and meant it. But when you don't listen to the words it can sound like a combination of French and Valley Girl accents, at least in Prague.

But it's still remarkably similar to Russian. With some silly differences. Like the thing I said above, Krasny Jazyk, means "Red language" in Russian. Pozor, rather than "shame" means "Danger" or "Attention". Uzhasny means "terrific" instead of "awful"! And so on. But there's some logic to all this, maybe. And the grammatical similarities is really what made it all easy. Yes.

Okay, so I've exhausted my brain, keep on me for more explanations, I have enough for two or three more of these.

I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier, I KNOW I'm a slacker.

No Dancing!

To be conti....

Dios mio! I've been here a week already! Or do I mean it's only been a week? Both perhaps!

Oy! Days are long, averaging like 12 hours each so far, meaning I've only gotten to go out last night! And there's damned English people everywhere! Who do they think they are? Czech people are really nice seeming thus far though, don't seem to mind much when you don't speak the language and appreciative when you try.

And the beer! Let me just savor that thought for a moment.....

Okay done! Well not much time left at the laundronet cafe, so perhaps I'll get to post later in zee week!

Czech me out! I'll get that out of my system. Eventually. Maybe. Probably not. Anyway, here I am in Prague now. At some sort of laundromat/internet hybrid. Aside from the castles and the Stalinist boxes in the outskirts it seems like no building is over like 6 stories tall. In a good way. And it seems like everyone here is a tourist. I'm not sure what I think of that yet. I all I did was sleep yesterday pretty much, and went around a bit today, but no where in particular. It seems pretty cool though. Like St Petersburg if it were more realistic and somewhat more interesting. I'm even picking up a handful of Czech phrases, but not enough to make me seem like anything other than a stupid tourist. We shall also see how that goes. Anyone have any opinions of where else I should go while I'm in this neighborhood called central Europe?