Posted on 19/11/2005 by haonowshaokao

I’m off again tonight, this time to Krakow. My last trip out of Prague. Probably. So in that spirit I thought I’d have a quiet night at the bar, a beer or two and to bed, that sort of thing. There was supposed to be a ‘rock and indie’ party with ‘cheap beer’ at the clown but the music was cheesy trance and the beer was at the usual price (“It’s always cheap here”). Met a selection of travelling types there though, mainly Kiwi girls, and took them down to the speakeasy that was the Blind Eye. It started snowing outside so I took one of them out there and we had a snowball fight and then went off to sleep together in the roof of her campervan. Came back inside the hostel when the snow started to melt off the roof and onto us. It was 7.30 but everyone was still up. Didn’t get any sleep at all and feel a bit groggy. Now I have a train to catch.

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At home he’s a tourist.

Posted on 16/11/2005 by haonowshaokao

I really enjoyed staying in Michalovce, being not a tourist for a while but instead a curio. Natalia had to go home for Jobseekers’ busy-work so Amalia took me to see the gigantic artificial lake down the road from her village. There were a huge series of holiday camps from the communist era along the side – fast food stalls, water chutes, restaurants, a pavilion, a waterfront disco, an immense white concrete shopping centre. All utterly deserted, some for years, a few still open in the summer for Poles and Ukrainians. The Czechs and Slovaks are gone to Croatia and Bulgaria. A very strange place, especially at night.
Then we had some food and hitched into town with some speed-maniac to watch a film with Amalia’s ex and some friends of hers and his and drink calimocho.
Yesterday I got on the 12 hour coach back to Prague. It was more a bus than a coach really, but there was nobody sitting next to me so I could stretch out and get at least a couple of hours interrupted sleep. The price was right, so I can’t complain. Then back to the Clown and Bard in the early hours and to bed for a while.

So I’m back here then. I can feel the English fog lifting from my brain, slowly. My mind slowed down to a hibernation pace while in Brighton. Not enough stimulation and too much stress, a word that seems fixed to the UK. It may be a brief lived feeling though. I had some Czech lunch, did the laundry and then came here (Planeta internet cafe) to be again continually frustrated at being unable to get a fucking job in Japan because I didn’t finish my degree in Film Studies. Apparently this applies to quite a few other countries too. Should I just fly somewhere and apply for anything I can get? Should I give up and go out into the Czech countryside and settle there instead? That would weigh heavy as a disappointment in my mind.
Maybe I should just give up on the search for today, stop babbling on Livejournal, go and get drunk and see what advice I’ve been offered in the relevant forums tomorrow.
This sounds like a good plan.

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Posted on 14/11/2005 by haonowshaokao

In Michalovce in Eastern Slovakia for what has become a very extended weekend with ex-housemates Amalia and Natalia. We went to a cool party at a bar on Friday where everyone was wasted and dancing on chairs and tables and the bar. Then yesterday we climbed up a hill to a castle with a dog we found and played monopoly (I lost). Back to Prague again tomorrow and really have to find a job now.

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Posted on 10/11/2005 by haonowshaokao

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Posted on 10/11/2005 by haonowshaokao

Also, this is a funny idea, thanks Kat:

“Ok, I was browsing the interest lists of LJ today and saw that the top spot on the interests was music. All well and good – but lets face it – dull as shite, right? So in my infinite wisdom I have decided to try to alter this sad state of affairs. To this end I need your help – thats right, yours! I have found a phrase that is not on anyones interest list, and I will, after this post, add it to mine. I expect everyone on my friends list to add it to theirs. I also expect you to ask your friends to do the same. As such a wave of this interest will sweep out and, hopefully, conquer livejournal! The goat is gonna get it! The phrase that you should add to your interests is:

Falsifying Statistics”

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Posted on 09/11/2005 by haonowshaokao

The last couple of days in Budapest were a lot better. Gave up going out to see the sights and stayed in the hostel most of the time, occasionally going out, most notably on the Saturday to a boat party. Would still go back there.
Now I’m in Prague, catching up with all the usual types for a couple of nights. It’s a bit odd to be back yet again. This is my 6th trip here. Will write again when I’m not being charged a crown a minute.

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Unhappy goings on in the eastern block

Posted on 04/11/2005 by haonowshaokao

So everything was going very nicely indeed until last night, when I was sitting at the bar in the hostel having a good time, drinking, chatting to people, all the usual kind of thing. I saw a box of Snickers bars on a shelf and since I hadn’t had a bite since 2pm felt a little peckish. So I asked for one, looked in my wallet and found I would need to break a 10,000 Forint note to get one. So I gave it to the girl and she came back with change from 5000. I waited a second before politely querying this and she rooted round in all the cash boxes for five minutes to demonstrate there definitely wasn’t any extra money there. So I let it go for the moment but kept it at the back of my mind until a few hours later when I was going to bed. The Australian girl who had been sitting next to me said that she saw the note and it was definitely 10,000. Why she didn’t weigh in at the time is a mystery to me. Woke up this morning and asked her to write down that she’d seen it so I had some evidence if it came to an argument but she got all weird about that and got me thinking I was getting worked up unnecessarily over it. But no, I will not put up with having money taken from under my nose. But what to do about it? It’s very annoying as I really love this hostel but it’s now tainted for me and I don’t trust the people there any more. What to do? I can’t just let it go really, that would be spineless. Any suggestions?

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Posted on 02/11/2005 by haonowshaokao

In Budapest, back at the Station Guesthouse again. I love this terrible hostel more than I can say.

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Posted on 31/10/2005 by haonowshaokao

I’m still in Zagreb of course. Hung around in the hostel instead of doing anything more taxing for the evening. There seems to be a much better class of backpacker the further east you go, so had a chat with all the people, made barely edible food and ate it. Had to move beds in the evening to escape a snorer nearby and went up to bed a bit later to find that some German guy had decided to use my bed and put his sheets over mine. As he wasn’t there slept in my bed and had to get up to take his sheets off again when he got back.
But I should stop complaining. This place is amazing. I’ve spent the last two days walking around the centre. Today I was meant to go and see some museums but they were closed so I just walked around again, which was great again. I seem to be the only tourist in town yet the whole place is buzzing with life. The cathedral is more ornate than anything I’ve ever seen and everyone inside is praying. Felt a little odd to be intruding on that so didn’t stick around long. Religion does seem quite important here – there are lots of other makeshift shrines around town with candles for sale and people praying. I remember Ivana saying that it was an issue to be Jewish here and I can see how it would be.
There are immense baroque Austro-Hungarian era cafes everywhere too and no end of preserved but deserted buildings that would be tourist attractions even in Prague. If I hadn’t been given a free ticket to Budapest I’d be tempted to go on exploring the Balkans for a couple of weeks. maybe another time. Tonight is Halloween – I hope some other people are up for dressing up and going out.

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Posted on 30/10/2005 by haonowshaokao

So now I’m in Zagreb for a few days, and off the tourist trail (which leads instead up to Vienna) at last. My mood is suddenly lighter. I feel excited again to have a new place to discover. Haven’t felt excited to be somewhere for a long time. Just has a look around the city and found the place to be beautiful and almost deserted. Fantastic.

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