Pilzen!

 This weekend, my roommates and I had the pleasure of hosting the entire North Shore of Chicago to our humble home.  Okay, so not all of the North Shore was here (although it certainly felt like it), and only two of them stayed here.  My roommate Brian is from Deerfield (if you guessed North Shore, you're right), and two of my other roommates Blake and David knew many of these same kids from Indiana.  Needless to say, Ian and I, the cast aways of this Midwestern themed weekend adventure, were left in many awkward situations as everyone reminisced over good times in suburban Chicago high school and/ or Indiana.  The two friends who stayed with us were both really interesting and nice, and despite only two rooms and one real bathroom, 7 people in the apartment not only felt fine, but rather comfy.

Church inside castle grounds

Our neighborhood (in the distance) from the castle 

View of Charles Bridge from the castle

On the positive side of people visiting is always showing them around and eating at your favorite places, which most visitors usually demand.  While I have tried to tour much of Prague in previous engagements, a visit to the castle, which probably should have been the first thing I did upon arrival, had eluded me.  Friday morning, we woke up, met a group of 30 plus people at Bohemia Bagels and went on a self guided tour of Prague.  The group started walking aimlessly as a giddy Ian and I decided to just follow them and see where we ended up.  They blocked the street, openly argued with each other on the appropriate direction, and also conflicted on where they wanted to go.  A lovely group, they really were.  After roughly 20 minutes of galloping around, the wide-eyed, the clan promptly turned to Ian and I, and asked us where we were, and where we were going.  Trying to contain our laughter, we told them casually how we had just been following them.  With a renewed sense of purpose, we set out to the castle. Luckily, Prague is a very walkable city, and despite a couple more minor setbacks, we eventually strolled through the castle gates.  The castle, the largest standing in the world, was absolutely magnificent, and provided me with some of the best views I have ever seen.  Hopefully the pictures can capture the breathtaking views for you, but unfortunately, this is something you probably need to see with your own eyes.

Entrance to Pilsner factory!

P

After a tiring first half of the weekend ( ya my weekends are that long), it was time to do some light traveling on Sunday.  So through my program various trips are provided through your tuition.  Yesterday was the first such trip as we visited Pilzen, home to the famous Pilsner-Urquell Brewery and the last city liberated by the American army in WWII.  Conveniently, all four of my roommates who had been previously been signed up to go bailed either the night before the excursion, or in Ian's case, the morning of.  In their defense, it had been a late night, but c'mon Ian, don't let sleep deprivation control your life!  We met at 9:30 (where nearly everyone had to control urges to puke), and made our way to Pilzen. Pilzen is obviously famous for it's beer, and the world owes the town to a certain model of beer called the Pilsener (how do they come up with these things!?) Breweries all over the world now produce their own Pilsner, none worse of course than our own Miller Light.  Only an hour away, Pilzen is prime for a nice day trip for Prague travelers.  The Pilsner-Urquell factory reminded me of the Willy Wonka factory with it's many charming buildings and wildly shaped buildings.  The company, now owned by a South African company (boo!), employs over 200 breweries, including over 20 American beers, but to this day has Pilsner-Urquell as the flagship beer.

My beer being poured!

Fresh

We toured the old brewery and the new brewery, the old pasteurization room filled with GIANT barrels of freshly brewed beer, before being directly served the freshest beer I have ever tasted (this includes the Heineken tour I took last summer).  Obviously so far the title of the blog has been a little misleading, but now I finally want to dissect this beer.  It was an amber brown color, with a little more foam than normal.  The foam is actually a good thing, because it protects the beer from invading air bubbles. They gave us unfiltered beer, which you can only taste at breweries around the world.  The beer was absolutely positively amazing.  Upon triumphantly finishing the beer, we made our way through the parking lot, to Na Spilce, the Czech restaurant owned/hosted by the brewery.  There, I had my first Czech goulash dish, and you guessed, 2 more free beers.  Everyone was great until they brought dessert. At first glance, this pancake looking dish, looked and smelt amazing.  It had what appeared to be whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and fruit on top of two fluffy warm pancakes.  Turns out, however, that the cream wasn't in fact whipped cream, but sour cream.  Somewhere, my Dad is cringing as he reads this.  I ate nearly half the dish before giving up, and nearly everyone around me did the same.  One of the few times I refused to finish dessert. Hopefully, the managers at the restaurant caught note and decided against uses such a awkward substance on a perfectly okay dessert.

The Great Synogague

America street/way

St. Bartholomew's Church

After lunch, and several stops to the restroom, we went on a brief city tour.  First, we visited the St. Bartholomew Church, which has the second highest spire in the entire country and what was the 3rd tallest building in the Czech Republic until 1981!  The gothic-style building is found in the main square of Pilzen, which also happens to be the largest perfectly mathematically even square in all of Europe.  Next on our list was the Great Synagogue just beyond the main square.  It is the second largest synagogue after Budapest in Europe.  Unfortunately the small Jewish population of Pilzen cannot currently afford to maintain the temple, so it remains there as a museum of sorts and a tourist attraction.  You may be wondering how the synagogue remained intact when the Nazis occupied the Czech Republic from 1939-1945?  It's actually an interesting story.  The building directly left of the synagogue (the yellow building in the picture) was the Pilzen SS headquarters for the Nazis during WWII.  They could not demolish the synagogue without also damaging their own building, and thus both buildings remain intact today.  Inside, you can clearly tell how beautiful the building could be in all it's glory, but without the proper work, the building is not currently suitable for prayer.  Hopefully one day, that will change.  Our last stop before heading home to Prague was the American Liberation monument.  As I said before, Pilzen was the last city the American troops liberated in Europe in WWII.  Our program director, who was born in Pilzen and still has family there, told us stories of tremendous jubilation over the victory over the Nazis on the second to last day of the war.  There were so many hugs and kisses going around that not all of the American troops could make it through the city to the main square.  The monument remains, and a on the one street was renamed "America way" in honor of those troops who forever changed the lives of those Czechs who were freed.

Well that's it for this edition of the blog.  Hope you enjoyed the sites from the castle, and some stories from the truly charming town of Pilzen.  I go to Barcelona this weekend, which is sure to provide many more exciting stories!


Best,
Sam