First time in a year to see Masha and Nikita and drink black beer

Actually, Masha and Nikita live in the Czech Republic, so I decided to go see them! Moreover, they apparently live in the center of Prague, which was crazy close to my hotel. I met Masha when I was studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia as an exchange student. We were in the same class and we met there.

She invited me to her flat at that time and we had a party together. I remember that happened a year ago. When we said good-bye, she said, “Let’s meet again in the Czech Republic, Russia, or Japan!” She said something like that. The last time we said bye-bye was on January 26, 2022. And today is January 28, 2023. Two days apart, but it was almost a year ago. I could not hide my surprise that such a thing could happen. I had never expected to meet Masha and Nikita in the Czech Republic.

Yogurt I bought last night.

20 minutes from the center! Two people living very close together.

To my surprise, she had been traveling in France until yesterday and came back yesterday. So I called her and decided to meet her. Her apartment is about 30 minutes from here, so it was very close. If I walked normally, I could get there in 20 minutes. I basically listen to music when I walk, so time passes quickly when I walk. So I was wondering how I could get there in 20 minutes. So I left the flat and started walking. It was quite hilly, uphill and downhill, so it was very hard but so fun.

Most Czech cities are not concrete, but stone. In other words, roads with embedded stones. So, when I walk in my New Balance shoes, I hear a sound. The sound is very pleasant. It’s really good. It makes me want to keep walking. Well, I arrived at Masha’s house. I waited there, and then she came! I hadn’t seen her in a really long time, but I was so happy to see her like this. So we hugged each other and decided to visit each other at home.

Elevator is manual, bath is golden. Oh no!

I don’t know if Masha had any real money, but it was a very nice place. The elevator was the kind that manual open, and there could have been a hotelier there; when it got down to the first floor, you opened the door with a wooden window to go inside. So I entered her flat. Then there was a big door and several doors. The kitchen was really big, and the bathroom and toilet were in the same room, but the toilet paper case was golden. The bath was also like a European royal palace of marble and gold. And the living room had an oversized chandelier, a very high ceiling, and a Lego Harry Potter castle. Then there was the Christmas tree. And Nikita’s drums and guitar. It was really amazing. The bedrooms were too big and the view was too great. I was like, “Why is this place so amazing?”

It was the richest house I have ever visited. It was too much lol. I asked him how much it cost, and to my surprise, the rent was 170,000 yen, which was more expensive than the rent in Montparnasse, France. But of course, I thought, this is because it’s so spacious. But still, the price was astonishing. I wondered why it was so expensive! I thought it was too big for two people. I thought Masha and Nikita were really funny. After that, we decided to get ready and go for a beer. Before that, we had a cup of tea in the kitchen and talked about what we had been doing for the past year.

Hearing about her adventure stories, seemed to be having so much fun

She was traveling around Europe for about 4 months on a pirate-like ship and then hiking in the French Alps. She was doing all of that with Nikita’s money, and Nikita was at home working all the time lol. I really thought they were a nice, free spirit family who didn’t interfere with each other, and that they didn’t mind being gone for four months lol. They told me so many things, it was really interesting. They asked me why I chose the Czech Republic and what I am doing now. I was asked about those things, so I answered their questions.

Masha told me that she had left St. Petersburg right after the war started and hadn’t been back for about a year. So she was almost exactly like me.

Anyway, I was really glad that I was in the Czech Republic. After that, I told them about my adventures. I talked about what kind of country Georgia is, about the food, about Latvia, and about France. From what I hear, Estonia and Lithuania are almost the same kind of thing.

Black beer and fries at a nearby bar.

After that, we decided to get ready and have a beer. We went to a nearby bar, but it was too loud there and it was really bad.

Anyway, I had a beer and ordered fries. But everyone was so stoned that I couldn’t hear them talking, and they were having a soccer game today, Czech vs. some other country, so everyone was really excited about that. So we decided that this was not a good place to talk, so we just had a couple of beers and moved on.

I was already a little drunk. Black beer is very tasty, isn’t it? I heard that Czech Kozel and Japanese Kozel are made differently, and since Japanese Kozel are not from the Czech Republic, they taste different. I heard something like that. I don’t know because I don’t drink beer very much, but I thought that the local beer tasted the best. Besides, I heard that the Czech Republic has the world’s largest beer consumption per capita, 190 liters. It was too much lol. It was like drinking 500 milliliters of beer every day. Besides, beer in the Czech Republic is too cheap, cheaper than water. A bottle of 500 milliliters costs about 90 yen. I think it is really too cheap.

The second bar lol

Well, then we decided to move on to a different place. Next was a craft beer place. There, too, I ordered a fruity beer. It tasted really sweet and very good. We had a lot of conversations there, and we didn’t run out of things to talk about. But I was so drunk that I don’t remember much. But it was really fun. We talked for about two hours, and Nikita always treated me to the bill. I don’t know if he pays the bill since he is 10 years older than me. I don’t know, but anyway, I don’t feel that they are 10 years older than me, and they talks to me as an equal as if we are same age, so they are so kind and warm people.

This is wonderful and great. That’s why we can tell interesting stories. It’s really nice because I don’t have to be careful. In Japan, we are taught hierarchical relationships, honorifics for superiors, and other things we don’t understand, so we call people who don’t follow them “rude”. This is obviously brainwashed by Japanese society. I think everyone should be equal now. I think so. It is because we are equal that interesting conversations are born.

Well, then, let’s meet again in the Czech Republic, Japan, or somewhere else! We hugged and said bye-bye. It was a wonderful time. It was really, really nice. I am glad to have met Masha and Nikita.