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This is cool. I’m posting this blog from a train moving through the Czech countryside, using my GPRS mobile-phone modem. I just take the chip out of my normal mobile phone, plug it into my laptop PCMCIA modem, and I have unlimited internet anywhere in the country. Neato.

Now if I just had more battery . . .

This is cool. I’m posting this blog from a train moving through the Czech countryside, using my GPRS mobile-phone modem. I just take the chip out of my normal mobile phone, plug it into my laptop PCMCIA modem, and I have unlimited internet anywhere in the country. Neato.

Now if I just had more battery . . .

Upon my return from America last, I brought an Anheiser Busch version of Budweiser for sampling along side the original, Czech Budweiser (Budvar is a town in south bohemia that’s been making Budweiser for several hundred years). We lined up the beers side-by-side, and were amazed. American Bud tastes a bit like tea when compared with the Czech beer. Beer-flavoured water perhaps. It’s impossible to capture the difference in quality.

Upon my return from America last, I brought an Anheiser Busch version of Budweiser for sampling along side the original, Czech Budweiser (Budvar is a town in south bohemia that’s been making Budweiser for several hundred years). We lined up the beers side-by-side, and were amazed. American Bud tastes a bit like tea when compared with the Czech beer. Beer-flavoured water perhaps. It’s impossible to capture the difference in quality.

So I’m in Italy right now on a ski trip. On first hearing, this might sound like one of those posh, fancy pants endeavors for wealthy types — but in actuality I went with a 70 person bus-full of Czech police students and their copious amounts of homemade booze and cheap wine. Consequently we’ve been skiing in “Italy”, but actually in a resort populated only by Slovaks, Poles, and Czechs and priced accordingly. Haven’t heard any Italian yet.

However, I’m pleased to say that my first Italian meal consisted of Mac and Cheese, and later, Cappuccino. Direct from the source!

So I’m in Italy right now on a ski trip. On first hearing, this might sound like one of those posh, fancy pants endeavors for wealthy types — but in actuality I went with a 70 person bus-full of Czech police students and their copious amounts of homemade booze and cheap wine. Consequently we’ve been skiing in “Italy”, but actually in a resort populated only by Slovaks, Poles, and Czechs and priced accordingly. Haven’t heard any Italian yet.

However, I’m pleased to say that my first Italian meal consisted of Mac and Cheese, and later, Cappuccino. Direct from the source!

Another note on the reverse-culture shock front: The ID carding for booze, particularly in Colorado, is completely out of control. I went to a Japanese restaraunt for a dinner with my parents and sister, ordered ’sake’ (sp?), and was met with a demand for ID. Outside the USA, I’m accustomed to presenting my identity papers to customs officials, and maybe the occasional train controller. But in the states I’ve got to pull out identity proof constantly, to lowly waiters. You can’t carry alcohol out on the streets, the bars close at a certain time, and you can’t smoke nearly anywhere.

I realize that America is a “free country” and all that, but the petty intrusions on personal liberty start to add up.

Another note on the reverse-culture shock front: The ID carding for booze, particularly in Colorado, is completely out of control. I went to a Japanese restaraunt for a dinner with my parents and sister, ordered ’sake’ (sp?), and was met with a demand for ID. Outside the USA, I’m accustomed to presenting my identity papers to customs officials, and maybe the occasional train controller. But in the states I’ve got to pull out identity proof constantly, to lowly waiters. You can’t carry alcohol out on the streets, the bars close at a certain time, and you can’t smoke nearly anywhere.

I realize that America is a “free country” and all that, but the petty intrusions on personal liberty start to add up.

Some of the old communist elevators here are missing the “double door” feature of American elevators. Thus, while riding, you watch the wall slide past you – trying to read whatever between-floor grafitti might have been written on the walls.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a super old building, features an elevator that continuously moves. It has about 20-30 human-sized boxes connected on a moving chain, and you employ careful timing to hop on and off as the boxes slide past. If, for some reason, you forget to jump off on the last floor, the elevator takes you underground and for about 30 terrifying seconds you wonder if you’ll be crushed to death, only to emerge going up again a few moments later. This is one of the many ways Czech terrify their children for amusement.