As you can see from the title, today is Independence day in the Czech Republic. 20 years ago today Czechs got their freedom. It's crazy to me that it was only 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't get to participate much in the festivities as I worked last night, all night and slept until about 2pm today. Eduardo went to a museum in morning that is dedicated to young Czech art that was made after the end of communism. After I woke up I had some re-fried beans for breakfast thanks to Eduardo, yum! After I ate and checked my email we watched Glee and then relaxed on the couch. In the evening, before work we went out for a lite dinner to this vegetarian restaurant. Neither of us are much for vegetarian food as we love meat but there are two vegetarian restaurants in Prague that have amazing food and atmosphere for pretty cheap prices; Lehká Hlava (clear head) and the other Maitrea . After we ate we walked together to my work. This is something that I love in Europe, we walk everywhere. It's so easy and so convenient and I will miss this wholeheartedly when we leave Europe. On our way to my work we walked through some of the events going on for the holiday. They had a concert going on a parade (more like a march of students and people protesting communism) and of course fireworks.
I say, "of course" because fireworks are so common here. I'd say at least once a month there are some going off somewhere in the city for some reason. Guests at the hotel are always asking, "why there are fireworks"? Most of the time I have no idea. I usually make something up as I hate to disappoint. To me answering, "I don't know" alludes the idea that I don't care. So I say something like, "Big soccer match" or if they look like they know something about soccer or like they know nothing about this area then I would say, "it's an old Czech king's birthday". (so far no one has caught me, well no guest) The guest's reaction of, "oh wow, that is interesting" is so much better than, "how do you not know?" Once there were fireworks going off in front of the hotel on the river bank. I told the guests that it was the birthday of the mayor of this municipality in Prague. They were all satisfied with that answer and probably went home and told that story to their friends and family. The way I look at it is, I create a story to along with the fireworks. By doing this I make the fireworks more memorable to them. In turn making their whole experience in Prague better and more memorable. It really is a service I am providing them. Hopefully they don't go home and check the facts. ;)
Back to independence day... There were riot police everywhere toting German shepherds to prevent the skin heads and commies from really having a word in the days events and to prevent them from getting out of hand. It all seemed pretty peaceful and I didn't hear of anything violent...but then again I was asleep for most of the day. I am happy for the Czechs and happy that they are so proud to have stood up against the communist. So lets eat some Svičková drink some pivo and Na zdraví!!!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
A hotel by the River or a River in the hotel....
I currently work at a hotel in Prague. I started working here about a year ago after I was laid-off from my commercial property management job. The hotel has nice rooms but things are less than organized and usually some crazy events are going on. For example, last night two very young American couples, each with a young baby were drinking late in the bar. Judging by their loud conversation level, the girls were shit faced. As the guys got fed up with the girl talk and headed up to bed with babies in tow. The girls proceeded to drink and get drunker and drunker. Their fellow patrons at the the bar were getting quite fed up with their "OMGs", "NO WAYs", "BTWs", "WTFs" and of course their using of "LIKE" for every other word. As the bar emptied the girls continued to gossip about pointless things until they got into a tiff. The tiff was short and mostly consisted of "I told you I am not talking about it", "Shut up you mean bitch" and "I am going to bed". They both headed to bed. On the way past the reception, girl "B" briefly mentioned to girl "A" that she was feeling a little sick....
Girl "A" showed back up at reception about 10 minutes later asking if they could have a couple a bottles of wine delivered to their room. Considering it was late, she was slurring, her eyes were half open and she tripped her way up to the reception. I falsely fulfilled her drunken desires with empty promises of two bottles of chardonnay within five minutes. She left swaying and went to her room and clearly passed out. 10 minutes later I had to go to bathroom. As I approached the bathroom I saw a river of water pouring from under the door of the woman's bathroom and into the hallway. I immediately think, girl "B"!?!?!
Our conversation:
Me: Knock
Girl B: Who is it?
Me: Why is their water coming from under the door? What are you doing in there?
Girl B opens door to reveal herself and the bathroom covered in pinkish orange vomit. The smell is humid and atrocious. She is trying to wash herself up but in her drunken state she has turned the overly powerful facet on full power. There is about 2 inches of standing water in the bathroom which has now mixed together with her vomit. It's too much, she is now crying and I just shut the door and walk away.
I stated thinking, What am I going to do? Luckily, I remembered that this girl is with a guy and sadly a baby. Even better I remembered her room number. So I call.
Conversation between me and guy:
Guy: Uh, Hello (he was asleep)
Me: UM....yeah, one of the girls in your group is drunk, naked, vomiting and flooding our bathroom. I think that someone needs to come down and assist her.
Guy: SHIT, Uh...ok.
10 minuets pass and he stumbles down from his room with the baby in tow. I escort him to the shit show and leave them be. From the reception I can hear him screaming at her, calling her names and asking her those questions that people ask you when you do something stupid that you think are rhetorical but they actually do want an answer.
After I hear them get in the elevator I go and view the scene. It is a disaster, a real mess. One that I don't think I can stomach to clean up. Then I remember, wait...I work at a hotel. We have housekeeping. YeSSS!!! Then I come out my fantasy dream and realize I work in the hotel by the river and that night time housekeeping has been eliminated long ago. I then think of the alternatives. Bell boy? Na, he wont do it. His pay is so low that he'd rather quit. Leave it for the morning? Na, too many questions to answer later and I can't risk loosing this job. So mop and bucket, broom and dust pan (for the chunks)I haste fully cleaned up the mess.
The next morning the girl apologized to my colleges and then complained about how expensive the hotel bar is.....
Girl "A" showed back up at reception about 10 minutes later asking if they could have a couple a bottles of wine delivered to their room. Considering it was late, she was slurring, her eyes were half open and she tripped her way up to the reception. I falsely fulfilled her drunken desires with empty promises of two bottles of chardonnay within five minutes. She left swaying and went to her room and clearly passed out. 10 minutes later I had to go to bathroom. As I approached the bathroom I saw a river of water pouring from under the door of the woman's bathroom and into the hallway. I immediately think, girl "B"!?!?!
Our conversation:
Me: Knock
Girl B: Who is it?
Me: Why is their water coming from under the door? What are you doing in there?
Girl B opens door to reveal herself and the bathroom covered in pinkish orange vomit. The smell is humid and atrocious. She is trying to wash herself up but in her drunken state she has turned the overly powerful facet on full power. There is about 2 inches of standing water in the bathroom which has now mixed together with her vomit. It's too much, she is now crying and I just shut the door and walk away.
I stated thinking, What am I going to do? Luckily, I remembered that this girl is with a guy and sadly a baby. Even better I remembered her room number. So I call.
Conversation between me and guy:
Guy: Uh, Hello (he was asleep)
Me: UM....yeah, one of the girls in your group is drunk, naked, vomiting and flooding our bathroom. I think that someone needs to come down and assist her.
Guy: SHIT, Uh...ok.
10 minuets pass and he stumbles down from his room with the baby in tow. I escort him to the shit show and leave them be. From the reception I can hear him screaming at her, calling her names and asking her those questions that people ask you when you do something stupid that you think are rhetorical but they actually do want an answer.
After I hear them get in the elevator I go and view the scene. It is a disaster, a real mess. One that I don't think I can stomach to clean up. Then I remember, wait...I work at a hotel. We have housekeeping. YeSSS!!! Then I come out my fantasy dream and realize I work in the hotel by the river and that night time housekeeping has been eliminated long ago. I then think of the alternatives. Bell boy? Na, he wont do it. His pay is so low that he'd rather quit. Leave it for the morning? Na, too many questions to answer later and I can't risk loosing this job. So mop and bucket, broom and dust pan (for the chunks)I haste fully cleaned up the mess.
The next morning the girl apologized to my colleges and then complained about how expensive the hotel bar is.....
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Go Rollingstone
When I think about my life, I think about those rolling stones in death valley. (http://brucewaynehart.com/wordpress/wp-content/movingstones42.jpg) The ones that seem to move when no one is looking. They move all over and they don't even seem to know how they got to their current location; yet they go without complaint and seem to enjoy themselves.
The Czech Republic is our third country in 3 years. Since we (my partner and I) are approaching our second year here I thought it was time to document our somewhat exciting life. I look back and I am dissapointed that I didn't start earlier but now is better than never. I hope you will enjoy my postings.
The Czech Republic is our third country in 3 years. Since we (my partner and I) are approaching our second year here I thought it was time to document our somewhat exciting life. I look back and I am dissapointed that I didn't start earlier but now is better than never. I hope you will enjoy my postings.
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