My first day with Beny Hill in Prague

Prague is an amazing city filled with people all over the world. I went there for about a month from May 26th to July 2nd with a Creative Writing class with Columbia College.

One of the first weekends there, my German friend Beny came to stay with me for the weekend, and he is the best person to have fun with in a place.

He first showed up late at night, we met up with our fellow classmates at a pub, then went to sleep soon after to rest up for the next day.

We got up and went to get something to eat at a restaurant. Czech food is very good, but I was going very heavy on the goulash and my stomach was not used to it. As Beny and I finished our meal we left and as we were walking down the street and I felt a fart coming, so I began to push it out and I sharted. So I went back to the restaurant to take care of this and Beny went off to go buy cigarettes.

I cleaned up and found Beny near a scooter rental place. We soon rented these bad ass scooters for two hours and began riding around Prague in them! Good thing I shit my pants, or Beny might not have found this place. We went all over the city, up hills and down streets and it was a lot of fun. Beny is extremely social and freindly, so through out the day and as we returned the scooters, he was asking locals which places were the best to go to. We learned quite a few, and we ended up going to the Stalin Monument that night.

 It's on a giant hill that you have to walk up many paved steps to get to. There's a big statue there that you can sit near and overlook the city from. There was a DJ there playing techno, and places to buy drinks, we met some fun people and we had a great time.

Beny and I with a vague view of the city

Later Beny and I went to Cross Club around midnight/1am. It was a really cool night club. From the outside, there was a bunch of little bridges connecting to one another, with benches and people hanging out. I think it was the reason for the name of the Club.

Inside there was a couple of different bars and little dance areas playing good European techno. Beny and I bounced in and out of, and soon Beny saw a group of three attractive ladies, and he approached them and we all started talking.

We soon found out that they were from a country called Georgia and they were all named Miriam.

They had a spliff of some kind, that they began to smoke and gave us some. I took a few hits and felt fine. For some reason I thought it was just tobacco. I began chatting up one of the Miriams, as I felt I had a chance. The other Miriam handed me the spliff again, and there was a weird vibe I got from this, and when I hit it again, it came to me that there was something else in there other than tobacco. I began to get very in my head and freaked out. I was still trying to hit on the one Miriam, and I had mustered up the courage to put my hand on her leg. She was okay with this, we were attempting to speak to each other, but with the language barrier was difficult. I nervously moved my hand up closer to her thigh and back down again and she very deliberately grabbed my hand and smapped it onto the table. This was embarrassing, and still I lingered at the table for another few minutes. I soon left and went to a table with Beny.

He was with some fellow German guys, and some Czech guys I believe. They were beatboxing and rapping, I soon joined in, but it died down soon after. I was sitting across from a guy who started talking to me in another language, and was scaring me. He was staring at me and taking long pauses between his speech.

"Sorry man, I can't understand you, do you speak English?"
"I crazy... I get gun, I go boom.... You understand?"
"Yes."

He might have said this a few more times, and combined with whatever I had smoked, and the chilly temperature outside I felt quite vulnerable. So I soon left with Beny to go and dance inside to some techno. It was warm in there, and I was able to enjoy my high and the music.

We stayed in this club the whole night, I was soon walking around and talking with people from Scotland, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Canada, Switzerland, England and Czech people.

 I remember this one German girl approaching me and speaking to me only in German. She was very pleasant, smiling and touching my arm a lot. I only responded to her with things like "I can't understand what you are saying, I don't speak German." And she would respond in German, with a big smile and affirming head nods. It's like she was having a conversation with herself through me. She soon thanked me, I believe, touched my arm and walked away. She said no words to me in English, it was so bizarre and interesting.

I met back up with Beny, and as it got light out, we were talking with some guys and they asked us, what we thought of "E=Mc squared" and it delved into a deep philosophical discussion about being good and avoiding bad and discovery. Beny was saying that to him it meant letting go of your ego or "eggo" as he pronounced it, and becoming best friends with yourself. Other people said stuff like "The universe is within yourself" and "When we breathe we are breathing in God."

It was awesome to see all these different cultures speaking the same language of humanity and talking about life.

We went home at 9am and after that night I became present to the magic of Prague, and I felt that European people are present to this magic of life and being a contribution to the universe.

Beny and I have had other European adventures that I will go into more, and this was the first one! :)