Czech bands in concert!

Lately I received the comment that my blog posts were way too much about funny stuff and too little about the things I do here in Prague. Well, that is mostly because I didn't do so much interesting things the past few weeks (although playing paintball for the first time in my life would be worth mentioning of course). But yesterday, I "did" something again.

On Sunday I decided to look at the concert agenda for Prague for the coming month, because I felt like I needed some new music in my life. On that website, I found out that the next day there was a concert at a place called Palác Akropolis by two bands that I did not know, but that did have a name that sounded interesting. So I checked them out on YouTube and decided they were quite good, so yesterday I went to Palác Akropolis to see them perform.

The support-act was called No Heroes. Those guys honoured to their name, as they entered the stage in simple white or black t-shirts and jeans. Their music was exactly the kind of music I like though. I could try to describe their style, but maybe it's easier to just show you guys a video:



So now for the main act, called Poslední výstřel. I was kind of looking forward to them, because they would sing in Czech and based on their YouTube-videos they were a bit.. unusual. Well, that impression was right. The lead singer, who looked a bit like Mick Jagger, was an over-aged, highly energetic, semi-drunk rocker/hippie/drug addict, and there was also this bald maniac who was quietly playing the accordion at first, but suddenly started to make crazy sounds in his microphone half-way the concert, and during the last song he even started to rap in a weird-sounding language that was probably Czech.

I must say, that last song was pretty good actually, but I will show you the best song of the evening: Rozhodně nečekejte sex. Actually, I caught myself singing along this one line at the end of the song. So thanks to these guys I now know one more line in Czech! was such an educational night yesterday. :)



I must say though that the live-version was a lot better than this video: it had a lot more guitar in it. The Czech crowd really went wild during this song! Which means: people started to move their legs a bit to the rhythm instead of just watching them with their hands in their pockets or their arms crossed. Yes, Czech people still have a lot to learn about enjoying themselves at concerts...

Love at first sight

Two weeks ago, I walked into a toy store and I fell in love. Not with a beautiful girl behind the counter, no, I fell in love with one of the stuffed animals that was looking at me, with a look in his eyes that said: "please, Laurens, take me home with you". This weekend, I couldn't resist the temptation any more, so I went back to the toy store, found my friend back (I really believe I saw a smile on his face when he saw me again) and this time I took him home with me. We were both so happy when we got home and played with eachother all afternoon! :)

So now there is only one problem: my little friend doesn't have a name yet. And that's where I need your help. So please get inspired by the following photo and send me your suggestion about how I should name this naughty little creature:




I hear you thinking: what's in it for me? Well, it's mainly about the honour of course, but I discussed it with my new friend and he told me that he will do a chat session of 30 minutes with the winner, like this:




So send your suggestions to me now, and my cute little friend hopes to speak to you soon. :)

International cooking

Ok, so I got another interesting idea this weekend, that I need to share with you.

On Friday night I was without inspiration about what to cook for myself this weekend, so I asked my new Turkish penpal who I was talking to at that moment if she had any suggestions. Straight away she suggested a traditional Turkish dish, called tavuk sote (chicken saute). So I googled a recipe, made my own interpretation of it and went to the supermarket on Saturday afternoon to buy all the ingredients. It took quite some time to prepare it, since I worked with mostly fresh ingredients, but the result looked very good and the food tasted delicious as well!

So my idea is to cook a traditional recipe from a different country that was suggested by one of my penpals every weekend for the coming weeks. It will be just like a culinary travel around the world! Sounds very good, doesn't it? So if you have any suggestions about a traditional dish from your country that I should make, please let me know. I will send you a picture of the result, so you can tell me whether I did everything alright or not.

And if I don't receive any response, like the time when I suggested you all to close your eyes and stare into a bright light to become a happier person (see one of my previous blog posts), I will send you a friendly reminder on msn or through mail in the coming weeks. :)

My first guest in Prague

Hi all!

I am pleased to announce that from Wednesday till Friday last week I hosted my first guest at my new place. My penpal Kate from Ukraine went on a trip to France, and on the way there she decided to make a stop in Prague to meet me. She had already done a city tour with the group she was with, but I still showed her around a bit in my neighborhood and the city center. Although it was hard to communicate at times, as she didn't speak English that well, we managed to set up quite a few nice conversations, thanks to her Russian-English dictionary and Google Translate, and had a very nice time together. :)

So I hope I will be able to welcome more friends to Prague soon, now that the worst part of the winter seems to be over. The city is just amazing, and I live in a great area, so this really is a great opportunity for you. :) And for the friends who are students with a corresponding tight budget: my guest-bed seems to be very comfy, so you don't have to spend a lot of money on a good hotel here; Hotel Laurens will take very good care of you as well. For free. :)

New place, new experiences

So, as I moved into my new room last weekend, I think it's time to give you all an update about it.

At first glance it all looked so perfect. The room is big, looks cosy and is situated in the center of Prague. However, on my first day and night here, I was a bit disappointed. Indeed, the room looks nice, and so does the kitchen. However, what pictures do not mention is the amount of noise you hear. My room looks out over one of the busiest streets in Prague. Even in the middle of the night not a minute goes by without several cars passing. I'm just a small town guy, so the first day and night I really had to get used to it, and I coudln't relax or sleep very well. However, today I already got used to it a bit and don't even hear all the sounds any more. So I'm turning into a big city boy now. :)

Moreover, the appartment is quite cold. In my room it's no problem, because the heating system works very well. In the hall and kitchen however, it can be very cold in my opinion. I say "in my opinion". As I spent a lot of time outside in the first night of this year, I may have a bit of a cold. That could be a reason why I'm so cold here all of the time (even in my heated room), so let's not judge the flat yet about that.

Today I'm starting to feel a bit better again, and I am cautiously optimistic now about my future here. When I'm in Vinohrady, the area that I live in now, I always get lost, so I'm sure that I will soon have some funny stories to tell you guys. :)

Photos of my new place will appear here soon!

Top 300!

My flatmates may have been wondering why I was locking myself in my room the past few days, but I just couldn't say anything, since I was working on a top secret project. Last year I promised it would be the last time that I made a top 300 of my all-time favourite music, but I just couldn't resist the temptation in November this year. Since it's impossible to post the list in a clear and understandable manner on my weblog, I used a different website.

You can check out the list here.

Enjoy. :)

New place to live + a little experiment to make you feel better

Finally it's going to happen: I'm gonna move out of my cheap flat in Rajská Zahrada and into a great flat in a majestic building in the center of Prague. This will be my new home:



I will be living on the fifth floor, which is nice, because over there you won't hear much of the sounds of the city and we have a very luxorious elevator, in which you would just like to stay as long as possible. Maybe in the first week I will just play lift-boy for a few hours, just to go up and down in that wonderful elevator. :)
Anyway. I will move on 2 January 2011, and I will have 2 flatmates: a French expat and an American student. I already met both of them, and they're both very nice people, so I can't wait to move in. The room itself is also very large and I have a double bed, which means I will have no problems hosting any kind of guests. Which is a good thing, because it's always nice to have guests. :)

Something different now. I noticed that I am feeling really happy the past few days, seemingly for no reason. Of course it's nice that I am enjoying life here, but I'm wondering why I feel so good. Maybe it is all due to my strategy to avoid the Winter Blues. Want to know this strategy? It's very simple. Every morning when I'm on the subway, I close my eyes for a few minutes and stare into the light above me. So to find out more about this, I would like to encourage all of you who are living in a big city with a good subway system to try this out for one week and let me know the results. And for those of you who don't have the privilege to live in such a city: staring into a light bulb for five minutes each day will also do.

Just be sure to close your eyes first.