X-Mas, New Year's, etc...

Wow, it's been over a month since my last post. Part of it is because I didn't really have anything exciting enough happen that I felt like it needed to be shared. Part of it is because I just didn't feel like it. And another part of it is because we were so busy around the holidays. So I'll try to remember what happened and sum it all up for you in a nice little package.

A few days before Christmas I met up with some guys Kim works with for a guys night out sorta thing. Nothing too exciting, just hanging at a restaurant and drinking Polish beer. The three most popular Polish beers are Zywiec, Tyskie, and Lech. The first two are very good, but this was my first time trying the latter. It was just as good, but it gets extra points for being served in gigantic 1 liter glasses that look like a barrel with a handle. I had 2 and a half liters. Then I had a very fun tram ride home.

Christmas day was fantastic. Kim's parents go a little overboard with the presents every year, and being on the other side of the world didn't deter them at all this year. They sent us two big boxes of stuff back in november that we had to just let sit in the living room for about two months before we could open them. Plus they sent a full suitcase of booty along when my mom and step dad came to visit, so we had plenty of loot to open. There was a ton of good stuff, but what really blew my mind was the Sony PSP they got me. They got me a Ratchet & Clank game that's pretty fun, but I'm gonna have to start buying some games with all the Best Buy gift cards I also got.

New Year's Eve was pretty fun, even though we both wanted to go downtown and watch fireworks but were cornered into going to a house party. There were more people then we expected and we had a lot more fun than we thought we would, so it wasn't so bad. The Poles go absolutely nuts at midnight. There are fireworks going off everywhere you look. And these aren't just little wimpy bottle rockets, these are the big boomers. The skies in the neighborhood were ablaze for about an hour and a half straight. It was really cool, but next year we're definitely going downtown. I was downtown earlier in the day and they had two big stages set up in front of the Palace of Culture & Science and it looked pretty incredible even when there wasn't much going on. I've heard the fireworks there are better than back in DC, which is quite the bold statement. I'll let you know if it's true next year...

On New Year's day we headed out to Praque again. It was the second time I've been there and was just as fun this time around. Just when you think you've seen everything, you head down an alley you've never been through and you come out to a whole different part of the city. In doing so, I stumbled upon the greatest store ever: A handmade armor store. Unfortunately, the guy wouldn't allow anyone to take pictures of his stuff, but I did get a shot of the cool suit of armor that was standing outside by the door.

I also went to the Medieval Torture Instrument Museum, which was very cool and pretty damn creepy at the same time. It was kinda small, but they had lots of stuff crammed in there. One of the funny things about it was that half of the descriptions were talking about the constant need to devise better torture devices. But every device they had was always able to force a confession, wether it was true or not, so why the need for new ones? People were definitely twisted back in the day (mostly the Austrians, from what I read). The coolest piece they had was called "The Virgin of Nuremberg", which you may have seen in the movies. It looks like a sarcophagus that stands straight up, while the inside is filled with nails that pierce the skin. Pretty wicked shit. Photos weren't allowed there, either.

So that pretty much takes care of our last month. I'll try to keep this thing updated better from now one, but no promises.