Election Night!

This is now a week old... sorry for the delay, I've been lazy!

For election night we went to the Sport Bar Zlatá hvězda, off Václavské náměstí (in what we've decided must be the red light district, or at least the red light street, since there were numerous strip clubs), where the Prague Post (the English language Prague paper) sponsored an election night American news watching party, and it was pretty fun. We drank beer, we watched CNN. There were a lot of people there, but we still were able to find seats at a table and be comfortable.

Being the anti-social pair that we are, we didn't talk to many people, just an Australian guy and some freaky middle aged guy from Wyoming who was heavy, kind of whiny and verrrry drunk. He was like a character from a movie. He introduced himself as the drunkest guy in the bar (he might have been). He wore a wedding ring, yet was hitting on Andy who said at least four times that I was his wife (I was talking to the Australian guy at the time). Then, when I was in the conversation, the freaky guy started asking questions like "Do you think of him sexually?" and asking Andy "Do you want her?" It was weird. And then I was trying to be normal and talk to him about normal things, he kept saying "What's your point?"

Then he said he had troubles, and he was going downstairs to reassess his life, and was gone for 40 minutes. I went to bathroom, and on my way back he came out of nowhere and grabbed my arm. I said "Hi!" and he said, (as he shrunk back a little, stirring a straw in his drink). "Sorry I just... reached out." I said "That's, okay... did you reassess your life?" He laughed and said yes. I said, okay, see you later. As I turned away he asked, "Can I come sit at your table?" Sure, I said. He was freaky, but harmless and clearly had low self-esteem (based on some things he'd said) and was drunk and a little pathetic. I began walking, and as I sat down I saw him turn around and walk out. Whatever. He'd been gone for more than an hour by the time we left, and had left his cigarettes on the table, so we took them. So, we came out winners in the end.

(above: around 3am, drinking coffee between beers to stay awake!)

We left the bar at 3:15am (9:15pm for you New Yorkers), called mom from a pay phone to say hi and happy election night, and then waited for the tram. Because Prague does not have a 24 hour metro, we had to take the night tram to the night bus. This was very exciting, as we'd never done it before.We waited on Václavské náměstí for the tram. There are food kiosks every few blocks on the square, which are apparently open all night long. We had a while to wait for our tram, so we got some mulled wine from the stand by the tram stop.

We'd never been in Prague so late! How fun! The night was really foggy. Near us were other about 15-20 Americans, Brits and Czechs who were also waiting for various night trams, and hanging around. "Wannabe," the Spice Girls song, was playing from the food kiosk and a drunk girl was dancing and singing along. Some Africans were hanging around, supposedly selling drugs. An unattractive prostitute bundled up in white coat and white go-go boots stood by the buys, watching people. Cops drove by and walked by on foot. Our tram came, then we caught our bus, then made it home, watched some more election coverage (this time in Czech) and then went to bed at 6am, after seeing McCain's speech that he'd called Obama to congratulate him.

It was a fun night, even for us old folks, who haven't stayed up so late in years.