Nine Things

I have been charmed by Prague for three weeks by now, and I think I can already safely say that doing this exchange semester is the best decision I could make for my entire studies. The exchange itself is great, and Prague in particular isn't any less of a reason that makes this half a year being out of Germany so wonderful.

So here is a list of nine things concerning my exchange semester that I'm loving most so far.

1. Vietnamese restaurants in Prague

I know this is a bit weird, especially since it stands at the very top of the list, but this is just what I am: a food-crazed Vietnamese. :P 

There are so many Vietnamese people in Czech that apparently, they are recognized an official minorty. In Prague, roughly 10.000 people of the 1.2 million inhabitans are Vietnamese. And according to a Wikipedia article, Nguyen is the 9th most common family name in the whole country. So yay. :)) But really, my point being: thanks to the huge Vietnamese community, it's so easy to get Vietnamese food. It comes in so handy since I just came back from Vietnam and I miss the Vietnamese food immensely. 

In Prague's city center, there are countless of Vietnamese restaurants offering the most popular food for Czech people: Phở, Bún Bò Nam Bộ, Bún Chả, Nem cuốn (really, Germany, you're lacking). I call it 'food for Czech' because even though the dishes do keep their traditional flavor, they are all too salty for a Vietnamese person's taste. I thought only Germans like their food so salty, but a Czech Vietnamese restaurant owner explained to me that it's just the same with Czech people. 

There is another option for real Vietnamese to go get their fix of traditional food. A market hall called SAPA lies about 10 km to the South of Prague's city center and it's the place where Vietnamese people have assembled and formed a tiny Vietnamese city. It has every kind of service for Vietnamese people, ranging from restaurants to nail studios to hairdressers to even kindergartens and Vietnamese language schools for kids. I went there a couple of days ago with some German friends, and had I not been able to speak Vietnamese, we would have probably never found the way to the food area. Translating Vietnamese for German friends reminds me so much of my job of two months this summer back in Asia. (Oh how I miss it...) Anyway, in that SAPA market, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant that offers a dozen more of Vietnamese dishes than in the city center, and I was soooo flashed by it. I plan on going there once a week, let's see if that can work out. :P 

This is what I ordered (after maybe, like, half an hour of pondering over the menu): Bún măng ngan and nem cuốn.

2. Cozy cafes

People who know me know that I have a thing for sitting in cafes and work. I miss having cozy cafes in Giessen (my favorite place being Coffee One; I love it, but a change of location from time to time wouldn't be so bad either). In Leipzig, there are considerably more of them cozy places, but nowhere beats Vietnam, where you can find Cafes in every street, with free wifi and a cheap menu for good drinks. Also, the cafe culture (in Asia in general, I think) is so developed that people came up with tons of themes for their cafes to be distinct from others, like cat cafes, dog cafes, cafes with notes written by guests all over their walls, etc., which is super fun to try out. In Prague, the cafe culture is not as evident I think, but chosing a cafe to have a good time in it isn't hard either. Also, the baristas working in the less touristic (hence cozy) cafes are usually cute young people who speak good English and are more than glad to be talking to you about their country. I love it.

3. Eating out

Still food and drinks, yes, but this is a very important thing to point out. Prague isn't as cheap as what my forerunners have made out to be (someone said they litereally ate out for EVERY meal because it was so cheap). Especially in the city center, the most touristic areas, the prices can get quite high, and eating at those places all the time will definitely take a toll on your purse. But compared to Germany, it is indeed cheaper - I would say about 1-3 € for a meal, and prices up to 20 € are quite rare. The good thing about Prague is also that there are tons of restaurants for different cuisines (not just Czech and Vietnamese), so my plan is to try out everything before I get back to Germany. To eat in a good Greek restaurant for example, I think I can save up to 5 € (shit like that is overpriced in Ger), and of course, that money accumulates over time. Asian as I am, beside a Czech restaurant, I have only tried Vietnamese food so far, one time an Indian restaurant and once a sushi place. Next on the list would be Greek, Mexican, (American) Burgers, Belgian, a vegetarian restaurant and a real Italian one (I didn't count that one time I got take-away pizza). Oh my God, I'm getting hungry now.

*ETA: Went to an amazing Mexican place yesterday.

4. Beer

Maybe for other people, beer would stand on the very top of their list, because that is what Prague (or Czech in gerenral?) is famous for. Germany is always known for their beer, and Germans for their beer consumption, but this drink has never won me over before. I think it's too bitter, and my taste buds do enjoy sweeter drinks like cocktails. But Czech beer, well, because it is super cheap, I haven't been shy to give it several tries. I'm surprised at how much I really enjoy it. It's refreshing, it's easy to drink, and it costs less than soft drinks of the same size. And yes, you do get drunk on beer if you drink it the whole night. :P

Beer that costs 20 cents.

5. Public Transportation

The. Best. Really. We students usually buy a three-month ticket for about 30 € and it brings us everywhere we need to go. In the center and pericentric area (which is quite huge and frankly everwhere you need to go), trams and buses frequent in, at the most, a 15-minute rhythm. There are three metro lines covering the outskirts of town, which is really handy, but not used much by me. I just don't like being in a tub 50 meters below the ground. Prague's streets are too beautiful for that. 

The best thing is, at night, three of the operating night trams and one bus can bring me home. What does an ERASMUS student need more, really?

6. Relaxing Uni life

Good infrastructure AND much free time is a combination I've never had in any city I've lived in. My classes at uni so far are like a joke or, dare I say it, like classes of Economics students or Social Sciences people. :P I still have "official attendance" every working day, but nobody is really checking if we're there and nobody cares when we come and go. Classes officially end at noon anyway, so I have like the rest of the day for anything else I wanna do. I was so confused with all that free time on my hands at first, but now I'm starting to fill it with activities that make me very happy, like looking for restaurants to eat out, discovering Prague and taking pictures on the way, I'm reading more, I'm writing more, and maybe, (just maybe) in a couple of weeks, I'll be recovered enough to touch my dissertation thesis again...

7. French people

This is a rather funny thing. So English has always been my favorite language. And when my brother started having French at school, we always get into those stupid friendly fights where I mock him with his English, and then he throws French words at me, which I don't understand, and hence really dislike. And then the fact that I have never been able to pronounce French in the right way, ever, has made me develop a slight aversion towards the language. It's so irrational but that feeling somehow also migrated to my attitude when meeting French people, so I was always a bit mehh with everthing French. (Oh and yeah, I still can't like French movies, too artsy fartsy.)

But since coming to Prague, it's like 40% of the people I meet are Germans (which sucks a little bit), and 40 other % are French, which turns out to be soooo great. In English movies I have heard the French speak English before, and I quite liked their accents then, but I definitely did not expect that from this summer on, when I, weirdly enough, start to meet French people more often, this accent will grow on me so damn much. It started with how my Luxembourgish friend in Vietnam (who is fluent in French) pronounced Chirurgie to hearing, "Ello, o ot chocolate, please" when I go to cafes with French friends. It's. Just. So. Cute. SO. CUTE. 

And yes, now I know why they say French men tend to be gentlemen. Chivalry is not dead ladies, and I believe there is none of us who is completely immune to gallantly gestures. 

8. Arts

People who know me also know that I do like Art in many of its forms; I just don't understand it enough to really appreciate it. I think I'm still underappreciating the Art in Prague, but since it is everywhere, I do know that it is there, and I can feel that it is beautiful and great. 

Modern or contemporary art is spread throughout the city center, which is a really smart move by whoever granted permission for the artists to do it. I can stroll endlessly in Prague's streets for it feels like there are millions of small alleys forming a labyrinth, and each time you go, you will discover some new artsy buildings, or funny statue you haven't seen before. Basically, it just never gets boring.

Of course, Prague is also known for having a great Opera. And since I've never been to an Opera, or Ballet, or Musical before, this is the chance for me to do it. Also, the student discounts make everything worth more than the price.

Here a picture of the famous hanging man who looks like Sigmund Freud in one of Prague's random alleys.

9. The language

I've always liked languages (except French) because they come in so handy everywhere. It's my first time having contact to a slavic language so my interest is definitely fresh and my motivation high. The pronunciation is a pain in the ass (and for the tongue), and I heard the grammar is anything but easy, but since I didn't want to get a C2 language certificate in Czech, I'm content with every little sentence I can say. Also, our Czech teacher is a really adorable old grandma, who is the nicest and kindest Czech grandma I've ever met, so I'm always happy to let her enrich my knowledge every Tuesday. 

I hope that when this ERASMUS thing is over, I can say and remember simple things so that when I happen to meet a Czech again, I can make them very happy. You don't know how happy the Thai and Malaysians were when we said simple things like, "Hello", "Thank you", "Bye" to them in their mother tongue. :)

But this though... what the hell?