Global Marketing in Prague: Archives

DAN CASE writes:
Today I departed from Chicago at 8:25 p.m. en route to London. Once we got in the air I was excited to see that I’m Not There, the Bob Dylan movie, was supposed to be playing. But for some reason on the channel it was supposed to be on they put on a lesser-known art film called Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, so I ended up watching that instead. Also, in my cabin full of twenty-something college kids, I got the pleasure of sitting by two middle-aged women who didn’t talk.

Since I requested vegetarian meals for the flight, I got all my food when first class did, which was great. You know what else is great? Free mini-bottles of wine they give with dinner on British Airways. I thought the wine might help me sleep, but it didn't at all and I was up for most of the flight.

I landed in London around 4 a.m. (10 a.m. in England), which was seven-and-a-half hours of flying and only about one-and-a-half of sleeping. Awesome! The London Heathrow airport was really cool because I was in the brand-spanking new Terminal 5, which has only been open for about two or three months. So, having to wait for five hours for my next flight wasn’t too bad.

Running on no sleep, I remembered I didn’t tell my bank that I was going to be out of the country, so my debit card didn’t work in any ATMs. Luckily, I found a MacBook Air on display in the airport, got on the Internet and emailed my parents to fix the situation, which they did. Using the money I had, I got some pounds ($40 for 15 pounds) and went to get lunch. I was really excited to buy the first legal beer until I realized that everything in London is super expensive and the cheapest pint was $6. So I got a $4 soda and $12 falafel sandwich instead. London airport? Super cool. London prices? Super uncool.

After the quick flight from London to Prague, I found out that some girls from my school had actually been on my last flight, and I caught them about to leave with our hotel’s bus without me (super scary). Actually, the driver didn’t know how many people he was picking up and we left without a guy. Oops.

Our group was actually the last to arrive to Prague, so after we got to the hotel we met everyone at a restaurant nearby. I ended up having these cheese stick-like things that had mozzarella and blue cheese in them, which were served with veggies and a yogurt sauce, and they were surprisingly really good. Also, I started my quest to have at least 20 different beers while in Prague, so I ordered a pint of Pilsner Urquell, the Bud Light of Prague, and one Gambrinus.

After dinner, some of us decided to go out to some nearby bars, while the other people got super drunk and went to the Charles Bridge that is like three miles from our place. At the first bar, there were only like five people in there. They didn’t understand English very well, and they didn’t seem too excited we were there. Also, they had no problem breaking up some weed and joints at the bar. Prague potheads. After having another pint of Pilsner, we all left and then went to another lame place and everyone did a shot of Jameson and left. Once we got back on the street, we asked a younger lady where some cool bars (that are open at midnight on a Monday) were and she led us to a cool place called Postel.

Postel was a rad underground bar and we met the bartender, Tomas, who made drinks like Tom Cruise in Cocktail, and flirted his way into the pockets of all the girls we were with. I opted for a bottle of Postel, blonde beer, which was very good, and then a Stella Artois. Around 3 a.m., me and the only other guy, Evan, who went out, decided that the girls better stop getting drinks from Tomas and we all went back to the hotel, hoping we woke up for our 10 a.m. tour of the city.

Dan Case is a Music Business major.

DAN CASE writes:
Apparently I set my alarm last night but did not turn it on, so I awoke to some of the students knocking on my door because they were on their way down to the lobby to meet everyone for the tour. So, I got up at 9:44 a.m. and was out the door for the day at about 9:47. Great start.

I did, at least, have the opportunity to snag a donut thing and weird fruit juice from the hotel breakfast before we left. Once everyone got down to the lobby, we left and filed into vans en route to the Prague Castle. From the outside, the castle looks like nothing I have ever seen in person, and it looks like it has been collecting grime for hundreds and hundreds of years, which it has. The cool thing about the castle is that half of it was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. But it wasn’t finished until the 20th century, so the style is quite unique.

After touring the outside of the castle, we ventured inside the mammoth cathedral and it was filled with some of the most intense pieces of stained glass that I have ever seen. The funny thing was one of my favorite pieces had a ton of religious imagery in it, but the inscription on the glass apparently said that it was commissioned by a bank and therefore was not a religious piece.

After the castle, we went on a frankly pretty lame boat river that took us up the river like a mile and then turned around. However, we did get to see this huge metronome that sits at the top of hill, and it’s a fairly prominent landmark in Prague. The metronome replaced a huge statue of Stalin that was there during the Communist era and symbolizes that they are no longer in those times.

Once we got back on land, we took the vans to the Old Town and the Jewish Quarters of Prague, which were absolutely breathtaking and mirror my mental image of what Europe looks like. But my camera died before that, so I’ll talk about it once I go back for some more quality time.

Eventually we ate some lunch at a school café and then took the tram back to the hotel. I finally figured out our Wi-Fi situation (only in the breakfast and Internet room). I got on and surfed the Web a little while and sent some emails. I can tell just from six hours of Internet that it is not very reliable since it has already gone out twice. Once my computer battery ran out I took my well-needed, first shower of the trip and then headed out with some girls for dinner.

In searching for a place to eat with an English menu, I got to witness some firsthand anti-American hostility. Hooray! Luckily, we ended up finding a place where the menu was an English-only menu. Some notable menu items included American Sauce and Potatoes on Grease, but I stuck with the vegetarian plate.

After the dinner, we went to a little grocery store to pick up some things, and I tried to no avail to get a razor because I forgot one. At dinner, someone on the subject of beer in Prague said that “beer is cheaper than water, I heard,” which I thought to be an exaggeration, although I had been getting it pretty cheap in bars. The grocery store proved me wrong. I was gazing over at the beer selection and a bottle of Primus quickly stole my attention. 7.90 krons for .5L (17 ounces)! That is a whooping 50 cents U.S. for a little over a pint of beer. Amazing.

After grabbing a bottle, I went over to look at bottled water and sure enough it was about 10 krons for .3L. If you can believe it from some facts like this, the Czech Republic consumes more beer per-captia than any other country (2.6 kegs per-person per-year). After the store, I went back to my room and watched a little BBC news, read a little of some homework, typed this and headed to bed.

Dan Case is a Music Business major.