Noc v opeře

Wednesday was St. Wenceslas Day - aka Statehood Day - aka a national holiday in which everyone has off from work, except sad little TEFL trainees. Wahhh. I did, however, manage to squeeze in a bit of culture. Quite a lot of culture, actually - a trip to the opera at Národní divadlo, the national theater (forgot my camera, of course, as I do for all important, documentable things) to see The Bartered Bride (Prodaná Nevěsta). 

I was a bit apprehensive, because, to be completely honest, I thought it might be kind of... boring. It's opera. In Czech. Two things I know relatively nothing about. Still, I figured if I didn't go then, I probably never would so I handed over my 110ck (bargain!) and set off. Pre-show glass of wine with my fellow NJ TEFL-er & her roommate, and then we classed it up. 


The National Theater is huge and opulent and stunning and everything that a theater is supposed to be, but rarely actually is. People were dressed up and sipping champagne and it was exactly how you think it should be. I got snapped at by a Czech man for shuffling through the row the wrong way (must face each other - oops. Lesson learned.), but that was just a minor snafu. 


They have subtitles in English and German so you can follow along, though it's fairly easy to grasp anyway (and I have a feeling that much of the story gets lost in translation). The Bartered Bride is by Bedřich Smetana, and was one of the first Czech operas to gain international success (though it took a while). It's a romantic comedy about Mařenka and Jeník, two crazy kids in love, despite Marenka not knowing much about Janik's past (he left home to escape his father and his evil stepmother). Mařenka's father has agreed to have her marry Vašek Mícha else in order to pay off his debts. The marriage broker working the deal tries to pay of Janik, who eventually agrees on the condition that Marenka can only marry the son of Tobiáš Mícha. Eventually everyone finds this out and is shocked and appalled that Jenik would give her up so easily. There's a circus, some drunkenness, and the big scene at the end... I won't give away the story, but you can figure it out for yourself. :)


A few etiquette notes - in addition to very strict rules (unbeknownst to me) about which way to face when trying to hobble down your theater row without stepping on toes or elbowing people or accidentally flinging your bag over the balcony (as said row is approx 5 inches wide), remember to face towards the people who have so graciously gotten up into that awkward half stand, half stoop maneuver to let you pass. Apparently, older Czech gentlemen prefer your face to be in their chest rather than your rear, well... And clapping. Get ready for some clapping. As in clap until your hands are raw, your wrists are sprained, and you think you can't clap anymore. Then clap for ten minutes more. That should just about cover it. And dress up. It's the opera, for Christ's sake. This is no place for jeans. 


I really did love it, and will hopefully get to go again (camera in tow). Feel good about doing something cultural other than sample the local beer, so bonus points for me. Now, what to do this weekend... [Update: Apetit Magazine (someone really needs to explain this to someone) Piknik: www.apetitonline.cz/piknik. Yum!]

School is keeping me (way too) busy, but I've still managed to squeeze in a bit of fun. Of course.

Thursday, I went out with some people from class for drinks at the Globe, an English language bookstore full of expats. You can check it out here. From there, we meandered our way back to a tram, picking up some Absynthe on the way (in what was a blatant manipulation of my newness to Prague, and is absolutely awful anyway) and headed up to the Jeep Bar, near the TEFL house. There's a definite theme here... can you guess what it is? 

Friday morning was our first Czech lesson. Oh dear. We have a stunningly beautiful teacher named Šárka, and I think we are all doomed. I might be okay if I carry around a cheat sheet for the next few years, but otherwise, it's going to be rough. Peej likes to laugh at my awful pronunciation, and I cannot blame him because I am totally butchering this. But I'll sign up for some more lessons and see what happens. Maybe I'll learn more than Hello, Thank You, One Please, and My Name Is... (maybe). 

After taking an incredibly long nap, we all headed out for a friend's birthday at Nebe, which was a fantastic and much needed night of dancing and cocktails and finished off as any good night out in Prague should... with a smažený sýr. Yum.

Saturday was a lazy day spent eating recovery food (Burger King), watching Big Brother and resting our aching toes. Went with Tara and Andrew to H&M on the hunt for their 70ck sale, only to come home with socks. And groceries. Exciting stuff, eh?

After a nice fry up for breakfast this morning, Peej and I caught the metro to Vyšehrad to do touristy things. Vyšehrad is the birthplace of one of Prague's greatest folk stories - that the princess Libuše, the "Mother of Prague", came to power but needed to marry someone to justify her reign. She had a vision that she would marry a man with one broken sandal, ploughing a field. When she sent her council out to find him, they came home with Přemysl, and they founded the Přemyslid dynasty sometime in the 9th century. 

When you get to Vyšehrad, the first thing you'll see is the Rotunda of St. Martin, which dates from the 10th century and is the oldest Romanesque building in Prague. 

From there we wandered through a little park with some statues and monuments (to what? not sure), and walked into Vyšehrad Cemetery, final resting place of some of the Czech Republic's greatest movers & shakers - Mucha, Dvorak, Smetana. 

From there, it was on to Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

Impressive, isn't it? After seeing that, we strolled around. Vyšehrad has amazing views of Prague and the Vltava River, and it was an absolutely perfect day to be out wandering. 

And one more...

All that walking left us starving, so we headed to Karlovo Namesti and grabbed a late lunch. I had the svickova - beef tenderloin in a cream sauce with dumplings and cranberries, and somewhat inexplicably, whipped cream...

Still, delicious, even with the cranberry/whipped cream/steak combo... 

Peej had the pork knuckle, which is a traditional Czech dish. All I can say is that the two of us need to do something stat to counter all this pork and beef. He basically got a platter with a giant pig leg on it.

Look at the size of that thing! 

Both meals washed down with a nice cold beer, obviously. 

(How are the Czech people so thin? National physique flies right in the face of national dietary traditions. Need to learn this secret, stat.) 

Homework has taken over my life and I need to stop procrastinating and get back to it, so na shledanou everyone!

The Green Fairy

...tastes awful. blech.

Doomed

Just logged onto Yahoo only to find their lead story of the day is this:


5 Foods That Can Trigger a Stroke


Ahhh, faaaaack.


Also, saw the most ridiculous gold Bentley on the streets of Jindřišská today. Looked like this:

Wowzers. Shiny. 

Artery Detox

Salad. And double dosage of BP meds.

This Little Piggy

The breadth of my culinary experience has vastly improved in one day alone. Well, comparatively, anyway. 

Lessons were much better today - considerably more sleep last night and a lot more enjoyable overall. Students are fantastic. Mini Czech lesson from them tells me this is going to be quite the bumpy ride. 

Lunch at Paneria. Sound familiar? Just remove the 'i' and you've basically got it. Still, miles better than it's American counterpart. Had a Panini šunka, which is really just a ham, cheese and tomato panini, but as I've mentioned before, the Czechs certainly know their pork and dairy. While waiting for my panini, was stuck in front of their baked goods part. Wowzers. Where does one even start? (With an apple cake and a latte, that's where)

Had made my mind up yesterday that I was going to head to Anděl after class to go to Tescoes, home of the cheapest groceries and the most stuff. It just so happens that Tescoes is in a mall. So did a leisurely lap around all three floors before responsibly putting down the $130 riding boots and made my way to the 2 story Tesco (that's nothing, the other one is 5!). Was on the hunt for vacuum bags and screws (so glamorous), but ended up picking up a few more things and then before you know it I'm shuffling down the dairy aisle with an overflowing basket and detergent in each hand (for that evil machine that I'm never using again). I contemplate getting a kart but realize that I still somehow need to get this stuff all the way back to Holešovice, so quickly decide against that. 

I love grocery shopping in other places. It's like a giant treasure hunt, and having no idea what things actually are or how you can prepare them (no microwave!) makes it incredibly difficult (I only buy things with pictures, instructions on prep need to be in symbols). Tried finding oatmeal. I take it the Czechs are not big cereal fans because there's a somewhat limited selection (by limited, I mean there isn't a mile long aisle dedicated to Kellogg's). Found what I hope is oatmeal (but came in four individual bags when I opened it so I guess we'll find out at breakfast) and, Danielle will be excited, found the English cereal. And elderflower cordial. And Pim's raspberry jaffa cake thingies. And some other little goodies. Successful trip. 

Came home to find out we're going out to dinner with some friends. Should have been responsible and stayed in to do lesson plans, but... bleh. Went to a restaurant called Apetit. Once you get past the ridiculous and completely unappealing spelling of the word appetite, you'll be fine. I wish I'd had my camera for this little adventure, because first we saw this:

This sculpture, "Horse", by the controversial Czech artist David Černý and hangs in the Lucerna Palace in New Town. Wiki him for his other stuff - its amusing. And ballsy. Walked through the rest of Lucerna to get to Apetit (snicker), where they have drafts in the middle of each table for you to poor your own beer from - very handy. They have quite a big menu, but I decided I was going Czech, so I got the Prague Plate. That's a bit deceiving, as it should really be named Heart Attack in a Roasting Pan. This meal includes smoked pork neck, roasted pork backfat, a sausage, dumplings, potato dumplings, potato pancakes and both red and white sauerkraut. Oy vey.  While pork neck and backfat sound, well, not that good really, they were absolutely delicious. Very tender. (Probably because, as one might guess, there is quite a bit of fat in a cut of backfat) I put in a valiant effort but could literally feel my BP rising and my arteries closing about halfway through so had to give up. Still, excellent meal. And for 250ck for all that food and two 1/2 liter beers (wait. I drank a LITER of beer?? huh. Guess all that salt diluted it.). Not too shabby.

Came home, buckled down scratched out a lesson plan for tomorrow and now it's time for this little piggy to go to bed. 

all quiet on the western front

In the battle between myself and the Janussi Jetsystem 1000, there can only be one winner. Tonight, thanks to muscles honed from heaving around suitcases and textbooks and building an IKEA showroom in my bedroom, that victory is all mine.

Am checking www.expatz.cz for a wash&fold and never going near that evil monster again.

argggh

Evil washing machine holding clothes hostage!

kofein, prosím

Delayed reaction jet lag? First day jitters? Unputdownable Bridget Jones's Diary? The glaring lights of KFC and the sweet melodies of the four tram stops outside our apartment? Perhaps some combination of all of the aforementioned factors, but regardless, still managed to see 4:30am while my evil, evil alarm clock counted down the minutes until its 7am debut. It seemed the first day of lessons was off to much the same start as Friday's orientation.


Still, made it to the correct building this time (hurrah!), slurped down as much instant Nestle coffee as I had korunas to pay for (Starbucks, where are you my dear friend?! I know there is one close to school, as I saw a sea of those little white cups breezing by me, but being directionally challenged and perpetually late, I did not have time to investigate.) Got brain up to a semi-functioning level... it may have been a snail's function, but it was a step up from where I started. Thus began three hours of lectures on teaching methodology and schools of thought and a lexis lesson on all things TEFL. I was hardly the standout student. 


Finally, my favorite subject: lunch. Cheapy kebobs (clearly am immersing myself into Czech culture quite well) and a trip to the school library to poke around my locker and see what's in there. Scary looking books. Thought best to leave those along for a little while longer. 


The afternoon meant we got to go off with our observers and meet the Czech students we will be teaching for the first two weeks before swapping groups. I'll admit, at this point I am mentally transcribing my resume into Google Translate, but once we got started, it was really fun. Our observer taught the students a couple icebreakers and a reading lesson, and he's fantastic. The students are all totally game for whatever he throws at them, and it's really interesting to see them work through trying to express themselves when they're not sure what the exact word they need is. They're a really fun group, so I think this might not be as bad as I had imagined - though ask me that again tomorrow when I'm prepping out my first full lesson!


Came home, ate pizza (I know, I know. I will eat polévky and knedliky and vepřové later this week. Also, probably a salad before I develop scurvy.) and had Andrew give me a tutorial on the scary looking washing machine. Lets hope what went in comes out... 


I am off to finish Bridget Jones for the thousandth time go to sleep. Dobrou noc!

Get Moving

Found a fun little video from the Travel Channel about Prague - easy way for you to see the important bits :) Enjoy!

First Day of School

On Friday, I set out with plenty of time to get to my 1pm orientation in Andel. I get to Andel, only to learn that the location of class has changed to a place back across town and that as the school has my wrong email (again), I missed about 2938923 emails over the past few days. Hop back on the tram, retrace my route back and show up to class flustered and a bit tardy - late enough to miss all the important info about lockers and books and, oh, you know, VISAS. Not a very good start. 


We get a bit of background info on how hellish the next four weeks will be, full of lectures and lessons and lots and lots of work, before departing on a tour of the city. This tour consisted of walking through Old Town Square, over Charles Bridge, into a park, over Charles Bridge again, down the river and then hopping the Metro back to Andel, where pivo and a much needed piece of cake is waiting. 


There are 16 of us in my TEFL group - all different ages, from all over the place (well, all over the US. There's one Canadian woman and a Czech guy), with one very interesting thing between them all... most of them were philosophy majors in school. Who knew that four years spent studying Idealism, Pragmatism, Comte, Kant and Marx would prepare you for teaching English? If that's the case, then I am in serious trouble, as the only reason I passed philosophy was because our professor gave us the test questions ahead of time. I am trying to be very open minded and withhold passing judgement until I get to know everyone a bit better, because right now it seems like I am with a bunch of people trying to be their idea of the stereotypical expat, which is code for pretentious. 


To wash away the first day jitters, the roomies and I went out to a bar called the Big Lebowski, in Žižkov. I fear my heels are not going to get a lot of use in this city, what with all the big hills and cobblestones. Learned very well that pivo + an empty stomach is not a good idea, so while everyone was guzzling beer, I was chowing down on a grilled cheese at the bar. The Big Lebowski is apparently the only bar in Prague that let's you decide how much you want to pay... I do not understand the business model behind this other than they're hoping everyone gets drunk enough to feel really generous. 


It's been an otherwise very lazy weekend. Spent the day doing years of reading and prepping my first group lesson - How to Write a Thank You Note. Tomorrow kicks off the first of four weeks of intense TEFL training, so I am off to figure out how to get my EU passport in case this all doesn't work out. :) 

Table for One, Please

Yesterday began my solo adventures through the city of Prague in an effort to become a bit more self-reliant and a lot more familiar with my surroundings. I skipped out of the apartment and onto the No. 12 tram and headed to Malá Strana, where I meandered down the side roads and under Charles Bridge before finding the stairs that took me up to it and into the midst of all the tourists and statues and artists. It was then that I realized that I had forgotten my camera. Off to a wonderful start. 


I strolled down Charles Bridge. There's a reason it's such a tourist trap - it's fantastic. All of the statues that line the bridge are fantastic to look at, street artists hawk souvenirs like jewelry or cityscapes or caricatures of you (or Michelle Pfeiffer, hello 1990's), and the musicians provide the perfect soundtrack. I must say, however, that one of my favorite things from Charles Bridge was the wedding party taking photos. Now, this was to be the first of many newlyweds I would see over the next two days capturing their special day in such a beautiful environment, but this particular bride was something special. Or, more precisely, her dress was something special. And I use the word dress very liberally here. This, errrr, ensemble, had a slit up to HERE and, get ready for it... lacy knee high boots. Not lace up. Lace. Boots. Lace boots. I did some research on Google to provide you with a visual, and this is as close as I could get:

Fancy, eh? All this, sprawled against what I am sure is a very meaningful religious statue, surrounded by hundreds of strangers. Where is Wedinator when you need them?

I walked to the end of Charles Bridge and wound my way through until I made it to Old Town Square. There was a little market going on that was clearly aimed at luring tourists away from their crowns, but it was sweet. They were selling all types of pastry things and various meats on a stick and were cooking potatoes in a pot that would have easily fit about five of me, while a woman weaved and an ironsmith (?) banged out (?) some ironwork (?). Smited? While all of this smelled delicious, I had already told myself I was going to have a long leisurely lunch in a nice outside cafe and read through my guide books. Which is exactly what I did. I had a nice glass of pivo, ordered a plate of goulash (fantastic) and watched from my table as the Astronomical Clock did it's thing. The name of that restaurant was U Orloje. Very yummy but very pricey, though for good reason. Dinner Lunch and a show. 

Map in hand, I set out to follow it to the Jewish quarter, but got lost in about 2 blocks. Directions were never my thing, and I didn't particularly care. I'll be here for a year, I'll have plenty of time to get there. So I just let myself get lost. Poked my head in a couple of shops and admired the crystal and all of the nesting dolls. Went into the courtyard of a gallery hosting a modern art exhibit and saw four giant hanging handguns and a couple made of ceramic making out in a garbage can. Clearly, I must hit up some museums and galleries because I think it's fairly obvious that I just do not get art. 

I ended up walking straight into the entrance of Tescoes, which was quite handy as that was my final destination of the day, and had I attempted to actually navigate there, I'm sure I would have ended up somewhere about halfway to Munich. Five stories, Tesco? Five? Crazy. 

Laden down with goodies (exciting purchases such as a bath towel and a surge protector, oh la la), I got on what I quickly realized was the wrong tram. Got off once I made that discovery and was right in front of Tančící dům, aka the Dancing House, aka the Fred & Ginger House, aka the Drunk House. You can decide for yourself:

Got on the right tram finally and made it home. Hurrah!


Woke up today determined to be much more prepared for my adventuring. Took the same No. 12 tram back to Mala Strana, then switched and took another up to Prague Castle. The first thing I passed on my way to the castle was the Royal Gardens, so I decided to take a little walk around, and what did I see first?

Yeek. This picture does not even do it justice to show you how absolutely massive this thing was. It had to be 2.5-3 feet tall. He, along with a whole garden full of his folk (and some owls) are on display every day at the gardens, and for a donation you can get your picture taken with one on your arm. I don't think so. I'll gladly give a donation so you can pay for the rope to tie them down with, but I don't think shock therapy is the way for me to get over my fear of birds. That, and I'm fairly certain this thing would crush my arm body.


Whilst trying to get my heart rate back down, I wandered around the gardens, which were lovely. It was nice and quiet and you keep getting little peaks of the cathedral spires or a dangerous look over what I imagine was once the moat. You can walk to where the old and new orangeries are, and I swear that the air there smelled of candy - it was so citrusy. Oh! And I saw something that reeeeeeeally blew my mind. A Roomba-esque lawn mower. (It's the little things, I know). You know if some park had that back at home, someone would have stolen it immediately. 

When I had finished walked around there, I walked through the gallery and into the Second Courtyard of Prague Castle. This is what you see:

Impressive start. According to Peej, that little black iron well in front of that round white thing used to be the only well for the whole castle, and was always locked so that no one could poison the king. Only two people had the keys to it. 

You can buy multiple tickets to the various attractions or group them together, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do yet and want to space it all out a bit. So I started by poking my head into the Cathedral. Holy moly. (offensive?) St. Vitus Cathedral took 600 years to complete, and looking at it, you can see why. The level of detail is mind boggling, and you could spend years pouring over each and every little aspect of it. The stained glass - sheesh. The middle of the cathedral is all lit in different colors streaming through these windows:

I'm impressed. I may not get the hanging guns or the ceramic couple, but this I get. Wowza.

After being sufficiently awed and ensuring that I will be returning for the full tour, I head back out, passed by the president's house (again!) and wandered to the back of the cathedral, before heading back through the courtyards and out into the front of the castle. I walked around the square in front of it and then headed down the castle steps towards Mala Strana. 

Once I got down to Charles Bridge, I felt it was time for some sustenance in the form of a baked good of some description. So I found a nice little cafe right on the Vltava River and treated myself to a cup of tea (čaj) and apple strudel with vanilla ice cream (cerstvy jablecny zavin vanilkovou zmrzlinou). 

Now that is an afternoon delight. So while sitting in the sunshine, enjoying my treat and trying to memorize my useful phrases list from Peej, I decided that I should take a boat tour down the Vltava. So that is exactly what I did. I spent a lovely 50 minutes listening, first in Czech, then in English (and then German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, something else, and French) to the sites from the river. Thank god for the Spanish and French, because I think someone was having a bit of fun with the English translations as they made no sense. 


Headed home and whipped up a dinner of spaghetti with sauteed garlic, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and sausage and then went out for a drink with Andrew and Tara. Found a great little place that I will never be able to pronounce or recreated the name of, but it had amazing pizza that comes in a George Clooney pizza box. What is a George Clooney pizza box you ask?

Here we are thinking we have stumbled across a magical secret, only to learn that there is an entire Facebook group devoted to it, from places all over Europe. Go figure. Still, someone has to finance all of those Oceans movies somehow, I suppose. 


Na shledanou! (Goodbye)

Ahoj from Prague!

After a verrrrrry long day of travelling during which I endured being poked by my seatmate, getting in a fight with an old woman, watching a nutty professor literally crawl down the aisle of a BA flight, and standing in a line full of pee while waiting for customs, I finally cruised through the friendly skies of the Czech Republic and got to see this unfold underneath:

From above, the Czech Republic is a gorgeous country full of fields and little villages of red-roofed houses. From the ground, it's even better.

I arrived on Thursday night and went straight out to dinner and pivo at a little restaurant down the street. I realized very early on why Anthony Bourdain eats nothing but pork in the entire Prague episode of No Reservations - these people know their pig. My BLT was perhaps the best I've ever had. And the beer was delicious. And so cheap! Even better.

Friday was a busy day of being productive, and the first thing on the list was getting an adapter and a cell phone. We took the tram to Tescoes (love that they're here) and then had a very confusing conversation with the sales girl at Vodofone. Considering the only words I can pronounce are hello and thank you and she spoke no English, there was a lot of pointing, gesturing, writing down numbers, etc. I'm not sure what I have exactly, other than it's a phone and there must be some minutes on it, though it hardly matters because there are three numbers in my phone and I am with these three people all the time anyway! Then it was on to Billa for some grocery shopping, during which my mind completely blanked, which is why the only things I have to eat are spagetti, some apples, 3 yogurts and some ready-to-eat meals that would be a lot more ready to eat if I understood the directions (thank you Google Translate for helping with that!). And cheese. Lots of cheese. There is a fabulous little cheese shop across the street from Billa (about 3-4 blocks from the apartment), which I can already tell is going to become a big problem. For both the wallet and the waist.

Later that night, we went out for a friend's birthday to a real Czech pub - not touristy, all locals. More great beer at tiny tiny prices. When you go to a pub here, they tally up the drinks on a piece of paper and then you tell them what you had at the end and everyone pays separately. Very different! Then PJ & I continued the party at another bar that was in what essentially amounted to a dungeon. I'm pretty sure we were about 4 levels below ground, but it was really neat. Walked home through Wenceslas Square and grabbed some street food - the sausages looked and smelled amazing, but we both went for the fried cheese sandwiches. Picture a mozzarella stick in patty form, on a bun with mustard. So.Freaking.Good. On paper, it looks disgusting, but at 3am it's perfection.

Saturday was party prep day. Andrew cooked up a big English breakfast (yum, more sausage and bacon... problem.) and we got to getting everything ready. The party was great - I got to meet a bunch of really nice people and it was a lot of fun. Sunday was a day of rest - we trekked over to Palladium, which is a giant mall (where I can tell I will be spending a lot of money very quickly) and got... this is embarrassing... McDonalds. Though I will say that it was the nicest Mickey D's I have ever seen, with an entirely separate cafe section. I got a big kick out of the fact that they sold Caprese salad as one of their options. This truly is a strange, strange land. :)

On Sunday night, PJ and I headed up to the Castle. We got there around 10pm and everything was still open to walk through - and it is stunning. There is no way to explain it without sounding really lame, but the Cathedral and the President's palace and Golden Lane and the fountains and everything are just absolutely gorgeous.

Cathedral of St. Vitus's

Cathedral of St. Vitus's

The Golden Lane

Everything in the Castle district is beautiful and clean and so accessible. When you think that you can essentially ring the doorbell to the president's house while you can barely get within half a mile of the White House, it really hits you. We then strolled down through the district, which is full of tiny little winding streets and boutique hotels and rooftop pubs and little shops and restaurants. We passed a place called Absynthia that was selling cannibus ice cream but decided to pass - can't imagine that tasting too nice! We picked up a pivo from a little tabak (tobacco shop - really tiny convenience stores) - guess there are no open container policies here! From there, we meandered across Charles Bridge and into Old Town Square, where there is a massive memorial set up for the three Czech hockey players who died in a plane crash in Russia on Wednesday. Hockey is the biggest sport in the Czech Republic and it's clear that these men were looked at as national heroes. 

Today was finally my day to go to IKEA, where I stocked up on supplies so that I can finally unpack my stuff from suitcases and make it official. I am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of the delivery man so that I can start putting everything together!

That's my trip so far. Tomorrow I am venturing out alone, so it should be quite interesting. And confusing. And fabulous. And overwhelming. I'm armed with my maps and my guide book and my list of useful phrases PJ wrote out for me, so wish me luck!

Todays Czech word is: Nákupní

(Shopping, of course!)