Euro Metal Fest Tour 2011, Prague Day 2

Waking up in a city I have never been to was a strange feeling, cuz typically you know what you are getting yourself into when you wake up in the one you are accustomed to. My first night sleep at Hostel Orange went uneventful, and very peaceful considering I was sharing a room with 12 other strangers.

Walking around Prague is like a modern city stuck in a time bubble from centuries ago. Of course, aside from the little surprises here and there, I managed to stumble upon a bottle of vodka I wanted to buy, but couldn't due to a promise I made to a member of a royal family from Bulgaria (Inside joke for those of you on the outside, hi Marina =D ). Plus space inside my camping backpack was becoming limited due to the shopping I did in Wacken Open Air.

This train took me to a town called Kutna Hora, which is about a 1 hour train ride away from Prague. The purpose for visiting this town in this fine country? To visit one of the most Metal churches in the world, Kostnice Sedlec, also known as the Church of Bones.

The church isn't big, but what it lacks in size more than makes up for in what it offers, which are real bones decorating the place. Keep in mind, this is not some Party City/Dollar Store fake bones, but rather bones that at one time belonged to a living human being, which made for an interesting retrospect of what it took to build this place.

At the expense of seeming lazy, I will provide 2 links that will give you detailed information about this church. First, the Offical Page so you know how it came to be. Second, a direct link to my Photobucket section of all the pictures I took of the church. Here's a couple of sample pics.

This was the train I thought was going to take me back to Prague, but as I found out during the ride, I was going in the wrong direction, the complete opposite to Prague. The train conductor came up to me and asked for my ticket, and when she saw the ticket, she indicated to me I was on the wrong train going in the wrong direction. She only spoke Czech and I English/Broken Spanish. When I realized her gestures and body language, that told me everything I needed to know about my mistake. Thankfully, she got me another ticket and told me to get off at the next station and take the next train going in the opposite direction. Even with a language barrier, that didn't stop us from communicating, and I thanked her for helping me in that bind.

One word all spoken languages understand is freedom, and as seen in the graffiti, the locals appreciate what it is all about.

The view from the train getting into Prague.

Walking back to my hostel from the train station, I managed to soak in some more of the city with it's statues and the people walking all over the place.

The city has a love affair with KFC. I have eaten KFC since I was a tike going to kindergarten, and being the adventurous individual I am, decided to give a Czech-style KFC a run.

I ordered a chicken sandwich as well as a Twix milkshake and some fries. Now, I ask those of you who eat KFC in the USA, notice anything different about the fries? They are regular fries instead of the potato wedges we have.

When I got back to my hostel, I decided to get some sleep since the whole getting lost in the Czech Republic and trip drained me. When I woke up, I went to Rock Pub Error, and that was another misadventure that makes for a good story. When I got on the tram near the hostel, I took the tram in the wrong direction, and I didn't realize this at the time until the conductor told me and a elderly Swedish couple to get off, with a surprised look on our face. When I showed the conductor where I needed to go, he told me to take the same tram going the opposite direction, leaving me on the outskirts of Prague in a neighborhood I didn't know to freeze my ass off for a good 15 minutes before the tram came. I was only wearing my Iron Maiden Live After Death Allover Shirt, black jeans, and my Converse All Stars, and the temperature was very cold.

Going to Rock Pub Error was another story of getting lost, as I got off at the correct tram station, and managed to get myself lost in another part of Prague that looked just like the last one I got dropped off in, except it was on the complete opposite side of the city. After walking around this section of Prague and with the help of one of the local bar tenders pointing me at the right direction, I found the place, which was on the side of a building basement. From the looks of it, it seemed "unfriendly" on the outside, and when the door opened, there was a caged door locked which needed the barkeep to open and close to let people in and out. I only stayed 40 minutes in the place, and the atmosphere was the complete opposite to Hells Bells from last night, meaning, very dull, and lacking in the friendly atmosphere.

The best way to end this night was to share the tram stop with a huge ass spider.

To be continued...

Euro Metal Fest Tour 2011, Czech Schwag

Now it's time to talk about the goods I picked up during my tenure in Europe.

First up are the goodies (the little figurines and shot glass) I bought in Prague for friends and family. The bottle of Bozkov Tuzemsky was also purchased in Prague and bought as a gift for a good friend of mines, as tempted as I was to keep it for myself =P . The brown frame with the skulls and bones and gray skull was purchased at Kostnice Sedlec and is all mine. A cliff note about the castle on the far end with the tall tower was purchased in Vienna as a last minute gift I almost forgot to buy for a relative of mines.

As with any Metal Festival, the first order of business is to plop down your camp gear and set up a tent. This is the equivalence of a dog marking his/her territory with its urine, different species, same approach (urine and all). I managed to "enhance" the experience of camping by purchasing the Brutal Assault VIP Camp bracelet which was a gated section with 24/7 security, lighting, and even dedicate port-a-potty's and port-a-sinks (which were cleaned and refilled at regular intervals) for exclusive use of the VIP campers. Definitely recommended.

The next order of business is to pick up your bracelet as this will grant you access to the key parts of the festival. Without it, you will be like a toothless tiger. You get a goodie bag with some key essentials that will make your visit to the festival as smooth as possible, if you want to call smooth freezing your ass off in your tent and getting soaking wet to catch a band you have never seen before.

They provided a "T(h)rash" bag to help keep the camp sites clean. Gotta do your part if you want to make these festivals a fun and "clean" (loosely using the term =P ) as possible. Heck, they even recycled the 2010 bags and re-deployed them to the front line for the 2011 edition of this festival.

They also gave the mandatory Brutal Assault sticker. This is standard issue gear (if you want to be considered a Metal festival/band/store/etc.) to put in your mirror/office/locker/any place you deem worthy/etc.

One of the items that came with the bracelet was a lanyard with a booklet that had key info on the festival and some free crucial coupons that hanged around your neck. Plus it helps that it makes you feel like a roadie a la Eddie Riggs or one of the band members performing at the festival, although it won't get you backstage, but still, the feeling is there. A side note, this lanyard with the booklet is why Brutal Assault will one day become one of the premier Metal Festivals not only in Europe, but the world. Actually, considering the 2012 line up, looks like they have made it to the promise land.

First up on the "Holy Booklet of Brutality" was the lineup times and days when all the bands performed. This is something many Metal festivals (all of them if they don't have this in place) can take from as it is proven time and again to give the running order of when a band plays for the Metal fans who were either too lazy or rushed into making their trek to the battlefields.

Than you had your "mini-me" version of a catalog merchandise to show you the goods they had for sale. You also had the opening hours of the places (like the merch stands, the electronics charging stations, horror cinema, etc.) that make going to a Metal festival much more comfortable.

It also told you the times of the meet-and-greets, so you can go into fanboy/fangirl mode. It also showed you who was sponsoring this festival, and aside the usual suspects (Jägermeister), you also had Metal Shop, which is a kick ass store, but why did it have to be all the way in the Czech Republic (jokingly of course).

Than you got the map, which showed you where everything is, if you know how to read maps and know where north is, getting lost wouldn't be a problem, unless your alcohol/drug consumption was on the heavy side.

Remember those free crucial coupons I told you about? Here they are. For those who spoke the tongue of the native land and English, it will explain everything why they are so crucial. I know I didn't utilize them, but since I had lots of spending money to work with, this was a necessary sacrifice. Why did I sacrifice free booze? For you the reader who took time to visit my neck of the woods in cyberspace\m/

I procured these while at Brutal Assault, and aside from the lovely lady who served me a wonderful beverage, she gave me Jägermeisters answer to Hawaiian Leis.

The next 2 items I purchased came with a Nuclear Blast bag and Magazine, which goes to show the folks who sponsor these festivals know how to reach out to the audience and enhance the experience.

First up is the Brutal Assault allover Double-Headed Eagle shirt. This shirt acts in 2 capacities; 1) It makes a great allover shirt and 2) it's like one of those douche-bag shirts you see at the Dolphin Mall all the time, which allows me to blend in with the outsiders.

Next is the main festival shirt. This is a mandatory piece of armory as festival shirts, like the festival bracelet, will indicate to all you went (as in survived) the festival emblazoned on your chest and back.

Then there's the Brutal Assault cups. Like in Wacken, if you bought the cup and returned it to one of the many beer stalls, they'll give you another cup without charging the deposit. They only had 1 design, but this design is "Screaming for Vengeance" \m/

Remember the lanyard that held the booklet that was worthy of being hanged around the neck of the worlds greatest roadie? They also sold a cup holder that can attach itself either to your belt or the lanyard so you can free your hands for a moment or two to either take a pic/flash the horns at someone/look at a hot women, and it even gives the whole lanyard a Metal kick in its visual aspect.

\m/ MOST METAL LANYARD IN THE WORLD \m/

To be continued...