Yesterday, I went down to the Center to find the Tesco (sort of a department store/grocery store) with Kyra. She needed to find a coffee maker, a necessary appliance that I and her other two coffee-addict-apartment mates agreed to help pay for, and I had a dual quest:
- Find an adaptor, so I could finally stop using all my apartment mates’ Mac chargers
- Find a hair dryer without a diffuser (we already had a hair dryer and flat iron at the apartment, but the hair dryer had a diffuser and that was not ideal)
As always seems to be the case, the trip turned into sort of an adventure. We were both dying for some coffee, so as soon as we got to the far end of Wenceslas Square we headed into a Coffee Heaven. Problem is (and we’ve encountered this everywhere) Czechs don’t really drink filtered coffee. Espresso shots: check. Lattes: check. Cappuchino: check. Ask for a regular coffee anywhere except Starbucks or an Americanized restaurant, and you will get a confused stare, and you can expect that they will not only be out or have to brew some fresh, but also that you will pay about as much for filtered coffee as you would for a latte. There’s just no demand here for it. I anticipated this and ordered an Americano (espresso and water) since I prefer espresso to coffee anyway. Kyra ordered coffee and a typical Czech coffee house situation followed: they were totally out of any sort of filter coffee and offered to brew some weird sort of chocolate flavored coffee (?) before realizing they were out of that, too. In the end, Kyra got an Americano, as well. We didn't really mind the lack of filtered coffee though, because we got directions to the Tesco from the strapping young Czech man working behind the counter. I think it's highly likely that I'll be getting more Americanos at Coffee Heaven.
The Tesco was like 5 floors, and I’m not going to spend more time talking about it than I need to, because it wasn’t all that interesting, and we found what we needed (except for the adaptor), but here’s a couple interesting things I noted:
- There were about 15 models of espresso machines, at least 20 DIFFERENT hot water machines, and… 2 coffee machines, Tesco brand and clearly made for English speaking customers. Further proof that Czechs hate filtered coffee
- Even though it was all technically the same store, you have to pay by floor. Hence, I had a bag with an oven mitt and cookie sheet from the housewares floor, and a bag with the hair dryer from the electronics floor
- Stores here are really stingy about bags. Half the time you have to buy your own, and even the Tesco wasn’t about to give us a large bag for the coffee machine. Got to carry that thing all the way back
I continued the adaptor quest that started when I arrived in Prague, checking the electronics store beside Tesco for an adaptor. It was like thirty bucks though, so I passed. Fail. That’s the last time I leave my adaptor at home before four months of studying abroad. Haha. The dual quest was only half-way complete.
I got back to the apartment and promptly began baking chocolate chip cookies. All was going well until I got to the vanilla. I opened up the bottle of flavoring I’d bought in the baking area of the Alberts, and as I poured it in started thinking it smelled awfully funny for vanilla. It was not vanilla. It was rum flavoring. Sometimes not being able to read anything here results in pretty funny situations, case in point. The cookies ended up tasting really good, anyway, thought, I thought. The rum actually kind of worked, if I may be so bold.
The night ended with me figuring out the washer/dryer and…. Drumroll…
CADDYSHACK!
I can’t be friends with anyone who doesn’t like that movie. So regardless of whether you like it or not, if I ever happen to ask you if you like Caddyshack, it’s probably in your best interest to say yes. It’s the only movie I brought with me to Prague (well, the only one I meant to bring. Turns out I also brought The Return of the Pink Panther because I stuck it in the Caddyshack case last time I watched it. A fantastic surprise), because I figured it it fit the comfort-movie criteria of being American and hilarious.
Today I woke up late and we all went to brunch at about 1pm to this amazing vegetarian place (I think I’ve mentioned it in a previous post) called Radost (http://www.radostfx.cz/). I’ve now been there once for dinner, once for brunch, and once at night for drinks in the lounge. Haven’t been to the club yet, but we’ll get there eventually.
After brunch, I went off to do some exploring on my own at the three-year-old, five-story Palladium, a mall that’s a couple blocks from Wenceslas Square. I gave up and splurged on a twenty dollar adaptor. FFFFFFF. Oh well. Quest for the adaptor officially concluded. After that, I walked around some stores and bought some boots that were on sale. Luckily for me, Converse shoes are all the rage here, so I have the shoe area pretty well covered. However, boots are, perhaps, even more all the rage (like they are everywhere, I guess), and they make more sense for going out.
I’m not gonna lie, the shopping trip wore me out (all the price converting and only being about to read about 10% of what's written everywhere catches up to you after a while), and I was pretty relieved to get back here to the apartment at around 6pm. I stopped at an Alberts in Wenceslas Square on the way back to get some ingredients for another batch of cookies, since I'll probably want to make more sometime soon. I had read somewhere online that vanilla here usually comes in a powder form instead of a liquid, and just remembered this morning. Sure enough, I found packets of vanilla power. Now, the next time I make chocolate chip cookies, I can at least have the option of leaving the rum out! I really did like that touch, though.. it’s entirely possible that the rum flavoring will make another appearance.
There’s a Super Bowl watch party in the Center tonight that I will, unfortunately, not be attending. I’m all about watching some football, but coverage of the game doesn’t even start until almost 1am here, and my first Czech class is tomorrow at 9am. I know, I know, it’s entirely POSSIBLE to do it. Any good football fan should go, regardless of petty little time-zone inconveniences. It's just that right now I find a night at the apartment with some snacks, Blink-182 playing on my iTunes, and a book in my lap to be more in sync with my energy level. I’m slowly working on becoming hardcore enough for Prague’s never-stopping social scene! No fear. It’s a process. And if it helps my case at all, two out of my three apartment mates are also too tired to go anywhere tonight, too.
A link for your viewing pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg8lSyGavc4
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