Czech Please

This morning started off with a shock!! Literally, I plugged in my curling iron, and must have touched the metal and completely shocked the shit out of myself.

I screamed bloody murder and Carrie came running to save me. My hair

Stood straight up and I now have a a lightning scar on my forehead. It's pretty neat actually.

Haha jk, but seriously, I was shocked majorly this morning.

We gobbled down breakfast.... Everyone here is so impressed with how much I eat at breakfast. I'm proud to represent Americans well.

We headed out to a town about 45 minutes outside of Prague called Mlada Boleslav where we visited the Skoda Auto factory. 

The company is the biggest exporter in Czech and recently was acquired by Volkswagen in 1991.

Hey...did you guys know that Volkswagen means "peoples cars" in German? I know I didn't! 

I'm just full of fun faces for your folks this week! 

Here's another REALLY weird fact about Czech people:

They are fascinated by the wild west. In fact, on the weekends, about 50% of the Czech dress up as cowboys, go to two steps and listen to American country music.

Bizarre???

I think so…different strokes for different folks I suppose…

So, anyway, Skoda was a lot of fun to see…

We got sweet head sets..10-4 good buddy.

I whant that.

This is what their modern cars look like!

They supply for the Czech army...

And race cars...

And midget cars!!!! hahahahah

They have a model called the "Yeti" so obviously they must put their mascot in the cars in the showroom….Europeans….

Today was a little tiring…Vick fell asleep in the back of a car hahahaha 

Here's some highlights (wasn't allowed to take pictures of the production, sorry, but know that it was REALLY cool :)...

1.) It takes only 1 day to build an entirely brand new car! Is that surprising to anybody else?!

2.)There are robots that check employees work. It takes pictures all around the finished product and compares it to the given plan.

3.) They call leasing a car "hiring" a car for six months or however long, haha! So cute!

4.) It take 4 years to develop a new model… 

5.) They have a test track and waterproof tube to test the cars before they're sent out to the consumers

6.) Ferdinand Porsche (you know…THE Porsche) helped design some of the Skodas before he was kicked out of Czech and had to relocate to Germany!

7.) We even saw cars from 1899

Another fun fact before I forget…

The UN headquters are located in Geneva Switzerland, about 3 hours from where we were!

I love learning.

After getting our car on, it was time to get our beer on. Off yo velkopopovicky brewery (shyeah, say that one five times fast)...

The grounds...

Our last and final business meeting was for a brewery about 45 minutes outside of Prague in the town of Velke Popovice.

It was awesome to see how beer is made!

But first, we had to fill our bellies with food...

Brewery pub

What does this look like to you????

Goulash?? Ok, me too, I was just checkin :)

Broccoli with literally a brick of brie cheese on top. Awesome.

Our table!

Himanji got blocks of fried cheese, my kind of girl! hahaha, who serves that????

The Czechs do.

Then came the weiners…..

They're going every which way!!! No one can escape!!!! EWWWWW!!!

Here was our presenter…he brought a beer to a business meeting. I like this guy.

We actually got to eat the malt they use to make the beer!

In case you were wondering…the beer they produce is called Kozel (goat in Czech…)

They had goat crap all over.

Sideways picture, sorry my iPhoto is weird over here…This is the most awkward advertisement ever!!!!

Right…. and look!!! They have a real live mascot!!!

Olda II!!!!

The group!

Looks like one hell of a party…

Maturation room

Tasting!

Drinking out of the goat's butt!!

Check out this awesome Euro mullet at the end of the video!!!

No words. 

Cool Beer Facts
1.) Hops are source of bitterness… Hops make you thirsty, which is why you keep drinking beer
2.) 92% of beer is water, the rest is hops, malting bubbles, and maybe some sugar (but the good breweries don't add sugar)

3.) Beer is actually poured correctly down the center of the cup..NOT the side (like most Americans do because we're impatient and don't want to wait for the foam to go down)… However, if you pour it down the side, the CO2 bubbles get caught in the beer making us feel full and heavy… If you pour it down the middle, this doesn't happen 
4.) Beer speeds up your digestion and has lots of B vitamins and minerals!

After the tour we headed back to Prague to investigate the city a bit more. I went out with the girls and we went souvenir shopping (I actually need zero more souvenirs, what I need now is a bag to take them all back in)…


Then to a bar on the rooftop of a restaurant to drink our dinner.

The views in the city never cease to amaze me!

Mulled wine and hot cocoa for dinner before wandering back to the hotel. Solid.