So, we started our morning a little early to get on the plane by 9am. Before the plane even takes off the boys are talking about lunch - where, what they were going to have, what kinda of Prague food they would find, etc.
We make our way to the hotel, drop off our bags and immediately head off to lunch. We found some little cafe around the corner in which Justin quickly picked up the provided reading material.
(This is Justin. He's my actor friend from high school. I've known him longer then Kyle. He starts working on a Disney Cruise ship in like 2 weeks..how cool is that?!?)
JUSTIN!! What are you reading?!? He said he was reading it for the 'articles', I had to remind him it was in Czech and it took us 3 days to learn to say 'thank you'.
After lunch we made our way to the clocktower, There were lots of people hanging around so we figured it did something cool on the hour. So we hung around too. Let me tell you, this clock was ALMOST as exciting as the clock in Bern was. (You know, the clock that we are never allowed to speak of again...) This clock, just like the other one, I think, is very death-y. Every hour the skeleton flips over the hourglass - you're one hour closer to death - what a nice reminder.
(I just thought this picture was kinda cool)
The rest of the day we wandered around and tried to figure out what we were going to do with the rest of our time in Prague.We did find the Communism Museum. This year (2009) is the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism. It's still weird to think that there are people my age walking around Prague that remember when they were part of a communist society.
It was a very neat opportunity, and a little eerie. I could go on an on about how much of a 'stupid American' I am when it comes to the 'isms' (communism, socialism, fascism, nationalism, marxism). But given the state of the world today my eyes have been opened and I'm interested in learning more about them and what sets each one apart from the others. (In fact, I just spent the last 30 minutes on wikipedia learning - poorly - the difference between all of them.)
(I bought a magnet with this crazy Russian doll on it)After my head exploded from learning we found a Czech restaurant and I had some WONDERFUL beef goulash (sorry American goulash, you tastes like spaghetti-os compared to this). My mouth is watering just thinking about the dumplings... I WILL find a recipe some day!
After a bit of a rushed dinner we made it to the PREMIERE theater going experience in Europe. Ok, maybe that's a little bit of an overstatement...But Justin did get hit on by the ticket girl. This 'show' was probably the most, trippy, ridiculous, interesting, inthrawling, and funny show I've ever been to. Three-fourths of the cast was dressed in head to toe black and carried around black light painted props. There's just no good way to discribe the experience - but if you ever get the opportunity to see a similar show I would, just make sure you're high.
The next morning, after a phallic breakfast (remind me never to travel with only boys again...), we headed off to the Prague Castle. Justin was put in charge of directions (I didn't want to play leader and Kyle is 'directionally challenged'). Justin led us a ways and then he just stopped. Kyle and I just assumed we were there so we started taking pictures! (This building is NOT Prague Castle...as we were informed of later.)
Justin led us a little futher in the right direction, then we ran into a dead end. Justin wasn't very happy about it.
We're THISCLOSE! But I won't be climbing over that barbed wire thankyouverymuch!
Finally, we got there, bought our tickets, and took the tour of St. Vitus Cathedral.
We don't really like each other here. It was actually colder inside the cathedral then outside. I was using him for his body heat.
After our tour we headed over to the Golden Lane (sorry I didn't get any good pictures). One of Justin's friends said that the one thing we had to do in Prague was to shoot crossbows. I don't shoot things so I didn't participate but I did take pictures.This friends directions were pretty good. But they were pretty funny. Here is how Justin discribed them: "Ok, walk in through the gate, turn to the left. Even though it looks like you can't walk down the street you can - it's fine. You'll see a wooden about 1/2 way down on your right. They'll be no sign, but push really hard and it will open to a spirl staircase going up. Go up one flight and walk all the way to the other end of the all - it's a long ways. When you can't go any further there should be the place to shoot crossbows for like $1."
So we're off on our adventure to find the crossbow shooting range. Step one: walk through gate. CHECK! Step two: turn left....but why don't we go to that door straight ahead that has a giant sign that says 'Crossbow Shooting'...
The boys got to shoot there crossbows.
and Justin even got a bullseye!
And here's Justin being a giant.
I guess Prague has a mini version of the Eiffel Tower. Now, the Czechs would yell at me if they heard me call it this because it is 'nothing' like the Eiffel Tower. For starters, it is octagonal - the Eiffel Tower has four columns of lattice steel.I was thinking about it later that day. Justin came from the city that has the Statue of Liberty, Went to Paris where there is the Eiffel Tower and a mini Statue of Liberty, and then went to Prague were there is a mini Eiffel Tower. I wonder where there would be a mini-something from Prague, but I've pretty much decided that I don't want to visit whatever it would be...
By this time we're FREEZING and wet. So we head back to the hotel to warm up and take a little nap (we were sleepy too).After our nappy-nap we headed out for a great dinner at KCF...I'll wait while you laugh...
When you live overseas you crave EVERYTHING American. I NEVER had soda at home - how I have at least 1 a day (plus they come in really cute, tall, skinny cans). Starbucks at home, NOPE! Local coffee shop any day. Now, anytime anyone wants to meat - let's to go to Starbucks! So, when I saw that Prague had KFCs I was very excited for a dinner of mashed potatos, gravy and biscuts. And guess what? The 2 things that were NOT on the menu at KFC - you guessed it - mashed potatos and biscuts. So we left. And went to the mall instead and had Chinese (other things I miss from the States). Then the boys got ice cream and coffee and I went shopping. (Of course I didn't buy anything...boo!)
At the chinese restaurant we found the greatest invention that would immediately put all buffet restaurants in the US go out of business. Think of a double decker luggage carosel that had endless supplies of food being delivered right to your table. This thing just spun around full of food and when you saw something you liked you took it off and chowed down. Ridic!
Back to the hotel to go to sleep. We have been up for at LEAST 3 hours.
Ok, I just thought this was a funny pictures! H3, parked in 2 handicapped spots and still sticking out into the sidewalk!
Saturday was a busy day! The boys enjoyed their peni shaped breakfast while I finished getting ready then we headed off. First stop was the information center to find a classical concert for later that day. After that we got our tickets for the 'Historical Fantisy Dinner Show'.
Then off to St. Charles Bridge. But not before we saw the giant metronome. I don't exactly know why it's there but I do know that for 7 years in the 60's there was a giant monument to Stalin. After seeing where it was and how big it must have been I see why it came down ASAP. This thing was 50 feet tall 70 feet long.
And a fun photo op of Prague Castle in the distance.
So I have NO idea what this is but I thought it was too odd to not take a picture of.
After we crossed St. Charles Bridge, and got a quick bite to eat from a street vendor, we found the LENNON wall. All morning all I heard was Lenin, Stalin, Communism, Socialism. I thought we were going to see a wall dedicated to Vladimir Lenin part of some crazy underground revolution. Nope, again I misheard. LENNON, as in John Lennon of Beatles fame.
Then we caught a tram to the dancing house (notice the windows). The original building on this site was bombed in 1945 and the lot laid vacant until the mid 1990's when constuction for this building was started. This building was originally names and is also known as Fred and Ginger (as in Astaire and Rogers).
This next part of the blog is for Justin (and Kyle) only...you don't have to read it if you don't want to.So we show up a little early to go to this classical concert in 'The Church in the Wall'. I kid you not - that was the name of the church. I think I read about why it's called that but that's not relevant to this story. So we get there early and we're the only ones there. About 3 minutes later 2 older gentlemen walk in and then one of them immediately walks back out (I assume to go get the womanfolk). The lone guy kinda walks around the outter edges of the church looking at this and that and we go back to chit chatting about whatever. Out of nowhere we hear this 'ppphhhfffftt' and an 'Oh Dear!' The guy farted in an empty stone church! It resonated for like 3 minutes and for those entire 3 minutes I hear Kyle, under his breath, repeat 'Don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh...'
Finally both guys give in and just start laughing hystarically as quietly as they can. At this point I don't know what's funnier: The old man, the fact that Kyle and Justin had to tell themselves for 3 minutes not to laugh, that their now laughing uncontrolibly, or that they guy and his friends have chosen to sit directly behind us in a completely empty church.
After our entertainment we headed off to our dinner show. On the way we walked past this (like we'd already done about 100 times) but this time it looks super creepy - like the evil queen from one of the Disney movies would come out at any minute and hex us all.
Here are some pictures from our "Historical Fantasy Dinner Show"
The boys got a big kick outta the midget, who, on several occations, went to find the tall pirate so they could pose together for pictures.
Here's my caption for the following pictures:"Hey big boy!"
"Got any $$"
"Ok, bye"
Oh, and the snake...gotta love the snake.
We gave this girl a nick name. We lovingly called her 'Strampy' which is a mix of tramp and stamp - which she happened to have!
On Sunday morning before we had to leave for the airport we we made it to the Jewish quarter of Prague. We had walked around some of the buildings on Saturday but since that is the Jewish sabith we couldn't go in to anything. Then they wouldn't let you take pictures inside any of the buildings so THIS is the only picture we got.Abby, I need your professional opinion on something. Justin, on our way to the Jewish quarter said 'Let's go look at some Jew stuff'. Kyle got a little offended and said that it was inappropriate to say. A debate insued. Justin and I concured that the phrase was only negative if used in a derogatory manner; it probably wasn't the most PC way to state that we were going to look at Jewish artifacts, but it was not demeaning as it was not used in a demeaning fashion.
Please note all the $10 words used in the prior paragraph.
Anyway, back to the story. This is the only picture we got. The jewish population was only allowed to be buried in this one portion of the city. So this cemetary is crowded with hundreds if not thousands of gravestones.
After our tour of the Jewish quarter and several of the Jewish museums we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and catch the shuttle to the airport.Our trip was very fun and it was nice to have someone traveling with us - and I'd like to think that Kyle and I were on our best behavior for Justin..
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