Budapest

My normal schedule includes 1 hour practices:
Monday: 18:00 (boys)
Tuesday: 20:30 (girls)
Wednesday: 16:45 (boys)
Thursday: 06:00 (girls)
Friday: 20:30 (girls)

My daily activities included morning coffee and bread with cheese, bathe, study the czech language with Pimsler's audio tracks, flash cards, and read Lenka's Czech language book... go to the grocery store... cook the food from the grocery store... go to Prague, plan for trips to other places like Marseille, and Budapest!

The Prague- Budapest train
Our Thursday morning (February 18, 2010) practice was canceled because there weren't going to be enough players. So, I took the train left Prague at 7:39 in the morning. I needed to leave the flat around 5:50 to get to the bus station that goes from Kladno (leaving around 06:00) to Dejvicka, the round square, in Prague (getting there around 06:20). Then I took the Prague metro lines from Dejvicka to Hlavni Nadrazi (the train station). There I bought a ticket from Prague to Budapest. Unlike flight tickets, the train tickets do not change in price. I wish I had a reliable, safe, consistent, cheap and public form of transport from one large city to another available to me always.

The train was nearly empty for most of the trip, and it was hazy overcast and rainy making it difficult to see the countryside and pictures hard to take. Much of the countryside was similar to Kladno, with rolling hills and trees.


The train:














There were sets of four chairs on each side that faced each other with a table in-between, which was really convenient for eating, setting my iphone down, etc.


On the train I met two Brazilians, Thais and Guilherme. I met them after they invited me to have lunch with them in the restaurant car after I gave them an orange because I noticed one of them was a little sick. They had either studied or were studying "letters," or literature. Thais was incorporating economics and tourism and other languages with letters. Somewhere near Brno (the second largest city in Czech Republic) the train's motor car went "Kaput" (the words of a local Czech), so we waited for an hour for another motor car.

Brno was very industrial with big old abandoned looking buildings, possibly factories, with broken thick old glass windows. I thought there was more graffiti in Brno than Kladno, Prague or Marseille. I can't give an unbiased opinion without getting away from the train tracks. This part of eastern Europe felt empty, concrete and mute, though the dull weather and empty train car probably helped create this feeling.

The Budapest train station (which looks similar to the Marseille transportation hub):















The hostel
I stayed in another hostel in Budapest, the Aboriginal Hostel. It was hard to find, and every single Hungarian I asked for directions from gave me bad directions, for the entire trip. I didn't take any of my own pictures of the place. I stayed in a room that holds 8, and I think there were 8 people sleeping in there when I woke up. They had lockers, which I really liked. They also had wireless, which is a minimum for me.

Budapest
Budapest is near the Danube, and has its own history, which I only know from wikipedia. The Hungarian language, like George said, was completely unrecognizable. The Hungarian equivalent of "cheers" was, in my phonetic spelling, "Egeshegedra." At least the Czech "Nasdravi" shares roots with Russian. Unfortunately, the train back to Prague got into Prague when our practice started, so I flew back. The airport is about a 20 minute drive, by taxi, from edge of downtown Budapest, or about an hour, if you know what you're doing, by public transportation.

Like other eurpean cities, Budapest has a metro (below). Budapest had a fasion street full of commercial tourist minded shops, some old buildings like an opera house, I wouldn't have minded another day or two for some better weather and to get to know the city better.
















There was a beekeeper's store! I stopped in, but unfortunately didn't know what my dad uses or needed. I did ask my dad, but he couldn't say what he would want without actually seeing the things.

















Bee keeper's supplies (above) and bee products (below).
















The plane I took from Budapest to Prague Friday afternoon (below):

Marseille

I flew on Czech Airlines from Prague directly to Marseille. In Marseille, like in the Czech Republic, I can take public transportation from the airport to wherever I want to go. I chose to stay in Vertigo, a hostel, because it was reasonably priced, and because it was located near the transportation center and the port.

Thursday February 11, 2010
My first night my roommates were from Japan, Korea and Turkey. I walked around and got oriented.
Inside the hostel:

The stairs near the transportation center, when I got to Marseille:

I was pleasantly surprised to find (just like Celia said) that wine can be very inexpensive, 1 euro. The prices for wine, in euros, might be visible below:

Friday February 12, 2010

I had some some cheese and bread I brought from Kladno for breakfast. My first mission of the day was to find some sort of espresso. My roommates this night were from Brazil (two brothers), and Switzerland.

I walked around the St. Nicholas Fortress:

View from the fortress:

Unfortunately, Notre Dame de la Guarde was on the top of a hill, very tall, with very limited room to back away, making it was hard to take a good picture of Notre Dame de la Guard.

View from Notre Dame de la Guarde:

Me, standing near Notre Dame de la Guarde, with Marseille in the background. It was very windy both Friday and Saturday:





















In the chapel of Notre Dame de la Guarde:

Saturday February 13th, 2010
I spent this day with a couple of people I met at the hostel, a Czech and a Dutch. It was pretty random to run into a Czech in Marseille, he was studying in Lyon. I wanted to visit a market, so we walked there. Then we rented bikes, stopped by Notre Dame de la Guarde, then went down the coast. This night my roommates were an American, a Canadian and the Swiss.

The coast:















I was impressed with the public transportation in Marseille, it was big, shiny, silent and futuristic:

Sunday February 14th, 2010

It was snowing lightly when I left, making it feel like it was time to leave. I flew from Marseille to Paris to Prague this day, and has a few hour layover in Paris, so I got to see enough of Paris to know that I wanted to come back.

I miss George every day, but I missed him especially on this day because my phone stopped receiving the local telephone network. Fortunately, wireless still works so I can use skype. I mentioned before that I am accepting donations to my skype account, I think accepting offers to pay percentages of my cell phone bills might be better.

VIP, Jagr and Lenka

On February 9, Lenka and I worked in the VIP room for the men’s extraliga (The Czech professional hockey league) game between Kladno and Slavia (one of the Prague teams). Jaromir Jagr showed up during the second period! I had to leave early to go to practice but Lenka and another girl stayed and got a picture taken with him. I stayed for as long as I could, hoping for a chance encounter. I got ready the second fastest ever for me (one time I ran in the rink with less than 5 minutes on the clock for warm up and was on the ice with 2 minutes of warm up left).

Jagr is a very big man. I couldn’t imagine trying to play any position against him.

Also, this isn’t really my news, but exciting none the less, Lenka found out on Valentine’s Day that she made the Czech national U-18 team! She’s a goalie. Congratulations to her :)

Slavia games 1 and 2

Since we won the series against Karvina, we started the series against Slavia, the team from Prague. We played both of the first two games away. We lost the first game 12-1, then the second game 6-0.

This weekend we have free, so I am in Marseille France. I only brought my iPhone, so I can't upload pictures. Soon!

learning the local language

I have had three main ways to work on my Czech language skills:
1) Pilmsler audio tracks (from the Craig family)
2) conversation with those around me
3) self help from books

I started 1) in Juneau. It has been helpful here, but people around me don't understand me when I say one of the most repeated phrase in the CD so far, "I would like" or "would you like." This lack of understanding could be due a) my pronunciation is incorrect, b) my usage is incorrect, or c) Pimsler is wrong. I'm thinking the lack of understanding must be due to a) and b). I have, however, learned most of the czech I know from Pimsler, and Czechs understand most of the rest of what I have to say. I've been focusing on learning the other converstaion in the CDs that Czechs around me seem to understand.

This is where 2) conversation with those around me comes in. Unfortunately, I know enough to talk to people in stores, numbers, how much does this cost, how much do I owe, and the entrance and exit greetings, so going to stores only improves my Czech language skills slightly. The best opporunity I have to speak Czech is with the team in the locker room and on the ice. Again unfortunately for my language acquisition, we're focused on hockey, and not on teaching me Czech. The locker room (kabina) is the best place to both have a conversation and to listen to conversations. I hope that if they're conscious of me listening, that they know that I'm not really listening for the content (other than the hockey content), just the language.




















A couple at the vchod (entrance), which is next to the vychod (exit) at the Czech Home Depot.

Today I've been looking at a book I'm borrowing from Lenka. I think it will be helpful, it offers the czech language in a conversation style. I also have a Czech - English dictionary, and a free translator on my phone for words on the fly.


The meet factory
I will soon have a new place to learn Czech. Jahu, from the team works for the Meet Factory at a center for contemporary art. They have resident artists from around the world who are (I think often) English speaking. The meet factory puts on Czech sessions once a week for the resident artists. One morning I was really frustrated with myself because I didn't understand Czech which made practice (training) difficult, and I was really tired (which was my own fault). I think this stirred Jahu into inviting me to attend the Czech sessions for the artists in exchange for correcting English for her. I'm pretty excited about learning from someone who is interested in teaching Czech, and about learning Czech in a verbal, conversational and interactive style.

Prague: Old Town: Prague Castle

Its not hard to take beautiful pictures in Old Town Prague. Rather than select 5 pictures from all of Old town Prague, I've decided to post pictures in groups.

From a Prague brochure

The Prague castle is a national cultural monument, the symbol of more than a millenium of development of the Czech state. It has been evolving over the last 11 centuries. Fortification, residential and office buildings representing all architectural styles and periods surround three castle courtyards. Originally it was the residence of princes and kings of Bohemia, since 1918, the castle is the seat of the president.

Below I have pictures of the St Vitus, St Wenceslas and St Adalbert cathedral. It is gothic, founded in 1344, the construction lasted 300 years, and was finished in 1929. Inside is the St Wenceslas Chapel and the crypt with tombs of Bohemian kings.




















It was a sunny beautiful day, you can see the color on the walls from the sun shining through the (stained?) glass windows (above).




















A crypt, Uncle Andy to the left with the gray hat on (above), a confessional (below).



































An organ (above) and the cathedral's entrance (below)





















I will eventually have these and many more pictures on line using Picasa. These pictures are too small to give the buildings justice.

Karvina games 5 and 6

Czech hockey is some of the best hockey I have ever been a part of. I don't know if I'm suffering from myopia, but I think it is better than the Midget A hockey I played in Anchorage.

Game 5
We played game 5 at home in Kladno. In either the 2nd or 3rd period they scored a goal, then we pulled our goalie in the final moments of the game and they scored another empty net goal, for a 2-0 win. We had a puck bounce in oddly around our goalie off of someone's skate, so it didn't count. We all expected to win this game easily, so it was a tough loss.

Game 6
Because we lost, we had to play a game 6, this time in Karvina. This meant waking up between 4 and 5, driving to Prague, taking the train to Karvina for around 5 hours then playing. We had a strong start with two (or three) goals in the first period. We won 4-0.

I have been told that I have the skills to play on the team, I can skate, shoot, pass etc. It feels like I finally have those under my belt again, over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the time used to reintroduce myself to hockey I needed for learning the team's systems.

Quick recap of my history in the games: games 1 and 2 (in Kladno) I couldn't play in because they didn't have my picture for the required player's card (2 wins in the series, one game came to a shoot out). I played well (and a lot) in game 3 (in Karvina), and we won, though it was close, 3-2 (3 wins in the series). The next game (game 4, also in Karvina, so we stayed there and maybe weren't as rested or fed as well as we might have been) I didn't play as well because 1) I was thinking about what the girls were telling me about how to play, like stay on the blue line for the pass for a shot or play in their zone and 2) because I was mentally exhausted. I was beat pretty badly once in a play I will probably never forget (3 wins 1 loss in the series). We lost game 5 also, this time in Kladno and I feel like I played an okay game, even though we got a lot of penalties and I didn't play often, probably twice a period. I was on the ice for Karvina's goal, with a player who usually plays forward. Then I didn't play, and our goalie was pulled for Karvina's second goal, for a 2-0 loss. Then I was told I couldn't play in the next game. We won 4-0, I thought our team played the best game of the series, with crisp passes, lots of scoring opportunities etc. We played yesterday like we should have the whole series.

I need to show that I can play with the team, in their systems. That they can still pass and skate hard and well when I'm on the ice. I am very lucky to be here, the hockey is very good.