Fear and Loathing in Czech Republic

Hi everyone.
The last days in Czech Republic were crazy.. specially the last weekend (in Prague).

I've been having serious problems with concentration.. in the last 2 weeks I missed some classes and I wasn't able to study anything. I'll try to change it... in fact I already started today to study again.

It's kinda hard to be motivated when most of your teachers can't explain the subjects in English, some of them have the courage to say "you have very good English"... wtf? They have their PhD (some of them more than one!), they are supposed to speak perfect English. How can they present their investigations in conferences if they are not able to explain nothing in English?

Well, enough of University, let's talk about what really matters. Last week I went to a couple of parties in Ostrava and had lot of fun. I think I have some good friends here. Not a lot of friends, but good friends and for me it's more than enough.

Here you can see me with the Portuguese and the French guys. From left to right: Sérgio, André Lima (me), Etienne, Miguel and Maxime.

The French guys turned out to be great people - very simple, kind and funny. The kind of friends you need in Erasmus.

I have good friends here but sometimes I miss my friends from Portugal. In fact I know amazing people in Portugal... I understand now 'cause I'm far away from them.It's hard to find people like them... artists, true believers in good causes, dreamers, sensitive people... in fact I think I'm very lucky to know them, I don't know lot people with this interesting circle of friends.I have those kind of friends with an amazing sense of humor that can make you cry laughing with no effort. Some of them can understand how I feel just by taking a short glance at my face.

Enough of friends, let's talk again about the parties.I went to the halloween party in Ostrava and it was great. I had my face painted and wore black clothes as you can see in the next picture:

Thank you Darina for the makeup... I think the final result was great.

The next day, at 4pm, the craziness started.

Me, the Portuguese and the French guys went to Prague by car.Everything started on the IKEA, our first stop for lunch. Some funny events happened inside but nothing too serious compared to what happened 9 or 10 hours latter!

The trip was quiet and it was great to drive a car, again. I don't think so much about cars but the experience of driving can be a real pleasure.

After getting lost for 1 hour we got on track and arrived without problems on the flat of Saara and Satu (my Finnish friends).

We bought 1 bottle of whisky, drank it inside the flat, we went to Cross Club and everything started. I won't tell you lot of details because what happened was not so funny... I was not involved in the problems. Let's say that some people had problems with the security guys because of a bottle of becherovka and a rubber thing to put the beers on top (some kind of carpet)... and a bottle of salt.
Ah, I almost forgot the disappearing of the jacket of a friend... and the overreaction because of it (which can happen if you are drunk).

Fortunately everything went well in the end. But believe me, the things could have been a lot worse in that night.As you can see, our weekend was being very calm so far... but it was not enough.

Next morning I went for a smoke, outside of the flat, with Etienne and we realized that our car was blocked, there was a clamp on the wheel. I was so pissed off! Am I supposed to know that a blue line on the street means "parking for residents only"!? I called the Police and they asked for 1000 korun (around 40€). I went upstairs to take the money but I called a Czech friend (Jindrich) before. He told me that they were supposed to charge us 500 korun for the penalty and I told them that when I went downstairs again. They became a little bit nervous and I though it was was better to pay and tell them to go fuck themselves, in Portuguese.. dirty corrupt thieves.

Saturday night was great. No problems at all. I was very happy to see almost all my friends from Prague. I'm used to Ostrava by now and I don't think so much about Prague (I guess..) but the truth is that everytime I'm with my friends from the EILC I feel really happy.... some of them reminds me of friends from Portugal.

We went to Chapeau Rouge and had a lot of fun. Good music, good vibes, everything was fine.

Me and Roberto (my Italian friend from Trento).

I'll come back with more stories soon... but I doubt I'll have stories as crazy as this ones so soon. Believe me, there is much more to tell about all the problems that happened but I don't think it's appropriate to write about it online :D.

btw, someone asked me whats the meaning of the name of my blog. It's a character of one of my favourite books "Ensaio sobre a Cegueira" (Blindness), written by one of the greatest Portuguese writers ever and one of the 3 best writes (alive) in the world, in my honest opinion. It's a dog and... well, if you wanna understand you have to read the book.

Good night and good luck.