I don't really know how to explain how this came about, but come about it has. I mean I get how I made friends in Prague; we are all a bunch of ex-pats, joined together by a common experience, blah blah blah. But here in Ceske Budejovice I am pretty much all by my little American lonesome. I have heard rumors of others like me, but they have all turned out to be just that, rumors.
So imagine my surprise when I walked into the bar just down the street from my house, which I have recently started to frequent, to a round of "Ahoj"s (the Czech version of hi), handshakes, hugs, heartfelt wishes of a happy new year and chairs being given up for me. Now, the guys at Singers, the other bar I frequent, have known me for a while, know what beer I drink and help me practice my Czech, but the regulars have hardly warmed up to me, other than the occasional drunk guy trying to practice his English or thinking I am the typical easy American, in Europe looking for a quick shag. Stepan and Ivan are amazingly deft at handling these guys and keeping me as creep free as I can be and I love them for it, but that is as far as my interactions with people there go.
However, at Cuba bar, most of them treat me like I have been hanging out there forever. Nobody asks me to help them with their English, we just sort of communicate in a strange mixture of very broken Czech and English, just sort of catching up or telling each other funny stories about what has been going on. I try to teach them the stroll and they try to get me to taste Czech cocktails, neither of these endeavors are very successful. The djs leave their station to come say hello. I was one of about 10 people given champagne at midnight on New Years. It is very odd, but really, really nice.
So it would seem, that just by showing up, I have made friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment