Jakub, the Crabwalker

After our previous failed attempt at getting a new room, we decided to try again with couchsurfing, in order to meet some people and maybe get some advice on where to look for houses (the fact that we're not rich or from Germany also helped us make this decision). I went on a messaging spree, asking for a place to stay while we stayed at yet another airbnb. It was fun seeing all the people in Brno interested in couchesurfing, but no one surprised me more than Jakub, the Crabwalker. He was a musician who was interested in videogames and had a funny dancing method that he was willing to teach. I found him to be the perfect candidate and wrote him a most personal and heart-warming message, which got us accepted and granted us two nights at his apartment that was shared with two other guys. 

Crab's apartment was close to Janacek Theatre (again, sorry for the lack of accent) and we arrived and found out we were his first experience with couchsurfing. This was awesome, because his flatmate, Jimny, the Cricket, was about to leave to Amsterdam to be with the love of his life. The day we arrived was two days before his departure, so while they were doing their own thing, we went to the city to get some good jackets and maybe a pair of warm boots! 

Once we returned home, Crab was there and he showed us some funny games he had created and some of the music he liked. One of the games he had made was incredibly fun. It was called something like Couch Jumpers and you had two guys holding a couch while people were jumping from buildings into it. The objective was simple: you had to juggle with the people, otherwise they would die. So, juggle we did and we had a lot of fun playing that game! I had so much fun I got competitive and beat their high score, which only gave me a bigger ego and has no purpose being here other than my self-gratification...so maybe let's leave this on the side and just say we had fun. LOTS of fun in that afternoon :) Thanks Crab!

After a few hours of hanging out, we got dinner and cooked some nice vegetarian lentils with spicy tomato sauce and fresh herbs. It was delicious and I was introduced to the wonders of lentils, which I had, so far, ignored. Dinner was with the whole family: Lemur, me, Crab and Cricket! We had a few beers and went off to have a beer at a cool underground bar. The bar's name, which I cannot recall, is next to Moulin Rouge and has, at the entrance, the same kinds of details that can be found in Gaudi's artwork in Barcelona. For that reason, me and Lemur found the coincidence funny, because we had noticed it before while passing through that street and said we had to check it out. The bar was downstairs and it was quite crowded with smoke, not a lot of people though, maybe because it was still early. Cricket, Lemur and I were complaining a bit about the smoke, but having been teenagers in Barcelona (Lemur) and Lisbon (me), we were used to going to bars and clubs and having to deal with second-hand smoke. There, me and Lemur tried our first czech beer! And it was so different in taste from the beer in my country that I felt as though it wasn't beer... I didn't love it, so I asked for a different drink next: Kofola. I love it now and that's usually what I order when I'm not getting a hot chocolate (which saved us during those hard, cold days). Cricket was getting upset with the smoke, so we left the bar (after drinking almost 3 large beers each) happy, cheerful and looking forward to the next day! 

When we woke up the next day, Cricket wanted to go do some Yoga with us, but we were too lazy and fell asleep. We slept pretty long that day woke up to a note saying they had gone to meet some friends that were saying goodbye to Cricket. It was really sweet of them to leave us this note and it made me feel like I had chosen the right candidate for couchsurfing. :)

After we went out and did our own exploring, we returned home in the evening to have dinner with Crab and Cricket and one of the flatmates that had been in Slovakia until that day. I will name him Baby and his big sister, I will name Big. So Baby and Big were really funny and had a really awesome relationship. Seeing them fool around and be together made me miss my brother so much... Anyways, that night we went out to a disco in the city center whose name, again, I can't recall, but that was also the one used for many Erasmus parties. The disco had a bit of a weird configuration. When you arrived, you went down some stairs and found yourself in a podium. After that, you went down some more stairs and would arrive at the bar. You could choose to go left or right. Left would lead you down a dark, small hallway with black walls covered in fabric onto a small dark room with a small DJ podium. I think you might be able to fit maybe 25 people there, with sweating galore. If you chose right, you would be lead to three sequential rooms: one where there were these giant black foam triangles protruding from the walls, which we assumed were for sound-proofing, but one can never know (it gave the room a bit of a sadistic feel); the next one, which was our favourite, because it had those small wooden tables to play metal soccer ("matraquilhos" in portugues, "futbolin" in spanish) and one final VIP room (meh, whatever, I don't pay for loneliness and narcissism). Needless to say we spent most of the night playing metal soccer! :D It was incredibly fun, especially when I faced Lemur and Cricket with Big on my side. She was very competitive and when we lost, she was pretending to be really upset but laughing a lot. It was super funny and I really enjoyed it.

When we returned home that night, Crab told us that the next night he would have some new couchsurfers over and that we were welcome to stay until their arrival. There were two girls coming over and we met them at dinner. They were super nice and we had very interesting discussions about how it's important to value everyone's work and keep a respectful opinion of others, no matter how important or hard we feel we have it. Cricket left that night, but not without giving each of us, me and Lemur included, a small blue stone that he said represented a bit of his soul. I never asked, but I thought he was a Pisces. This increased my suspicion. 

It was a great stay, and I suppose Crab will never see this, but we owe you man, and we hope you enjoyed our stay and can talk about it with as much joy as I just hope I did :)