the paradise that is a beer garden

Last night, I was introduced to the beer garden. For those of you terribly unenlightened souls - like myself, until now - a beer garden is probably the best place in the world to be on a spring or summer evening. In city parks, there are these fenced off areas with picnic tables, often a large television screen and some foosball tables. Beer is being served from temporary wooden stands, much like they used to have at the ballpark when we were kids serving hot dogs and Suicide sodas, that are opened up just in the spring and summer. It's on tap and you grab a beer and park it at a picnic table. Perhaps you can grab some chips there, too, and this strange concoction of sausages floating in some kind of oniony water, whose name translates into something close to drowning man.

Apparently I live about a half of a block from one of the best beer gardens in Prague, Riegrovy Sady... or so I am told. This park, spitting distance from our front door, has a winding path up to a hill where the beer garden is perched, and a few steps away is a breathtaking view of the city. (also a great place for a jog, when not consuming Pilsner Urquell) Last night was one of the inaugural beer garden evenings of the season, and people were smiling and having fun and drinking beer, though it was still chilly enough for jackets. Put this on the list of my favorite places in Prague. I expect as the weather keeps getting warmer, this will be a much-frequented evening spot.

For those inquiring about the food here... I have not eaten a traditional Czech meal, yet, but have big plans to in the near future. But I hear they can really knock you out (sausages, dumplings, etc.), so I have to prepare myself. And, you know, I really haven't found Prague's answer to the crepe/tarte of Paris, but knowing me, that shouldn't take too long.

In other news, my roommate and I visited IKEA last weekend - which looked and felt eerily like every other IKEA I have ever been to in the states. So I have furnished my room, after assembling a giant wooden clothes chest/armoire with my bare hands... and a hammer, screw driver, and those cryptic drawings that have only basic outline drawings of the furniture. Who knew I was such a carpenter? I'll be sure to post pictures of my project soon.

As they say in Prague - Cau!