Randomness

recollections, impressions, memories --

I bought music at Bontonland in Wenceslas Square - I knew the names of several bands that I wanted to check out but after going to the SOKOL exhibition on Wednesday night and hearing the music there, I knew there was more music that I wanted to know about. I asked our guide, Katerina, the names of popular music bands and she came up with a bunch, far more than I could actually carry back to the States, including a band that she and her husband had seen in concert just a month ago. I ended up buying five - Elan, Divokej Bill, The Plastic People of the Universe, Ivana Mladka, and Cechomor; I could have bought dozens!

Sokol - what serendipity! I just "happened" to be crossing the Karlov Most on Sunday morning, roaming around on my own before the meet-up with the rest of the tour group at 3 PM and heard a band playing, like a band in a parade. I love parades (who doesn't?) and marching bands in particular, so I stepped up my pace and found myself at the east end of the bridge where a parade had just started moments before. A group of dancers dressed in traditional costumes was dancing just under an overpass, people jammed around them on all sides, a very bored-looking policeman keeping watch. The area is the main crosswalk from the Charles Bridge to the Old Town and New Town areas and tourists walked through the parade as they could to get to the other side. I ended up staying for two hours, watching the parade go by - a person from each area or region that was represented held a sign up and was followed by the people from that area that would be in the exhibitions the following week. Little did I know at that time that history was being made but the atmosphere held my attention - I couldn't get away! Every time I thought I could leave, something would grab my attention and I would stay to take one more photo. Another group of regional dancers, one more group of exhuberant older women waving white scarves, another bunch of kids waving wooden noisemakers to the beat of the band marching with them..... it held me spellbound, is all I can say.

Katerina - her website is here and I won't repeat the information that she has about herself on her website because you can read that for yourself. I could write pages about our experiences during just one week with her so for now, I will say that she is very knowledgeable, professional, personable, friendly, out-going, and made us welcome in her city. I would love to go back to Prague in the winter or spring and have her as my guide.

Gotta go wash some clothes and get ready to go to the acupuncturist this morning so I'll add more recollections, impressions, memories later.

Ahoj!

Home again!

Well, I'm finally home again..... many hours on travel on several planes leaving from several airports and I'm tired, hot, sticky, stinky, and hungry.

Mark and Nick picked me up from PDX after a 2-hour delay coming in from Chicago, which was fine with me (the delay, that is) because it was mechanical problems that grounded that plane and I would rather they found those kinds of issues while we're still on the ground! They got us another plane and got us out of Chicago instead of laying us over and that's okay with me, too.

I'll post one last update tomorrow after a shower and a night's sleep.

Later!

Last whole day in Prague

I had breakfast this morning with my new friends from Chicago, Jean and Linda, at the ONLY Irish pub in the city of Prague. I wish I'd taken a photo of the sandwich - big flat kind of bread with Irish sausages inside. And fresh squeezed orange juice. Sitting on the square. As they all say, it is a lot more expensive sitting on the square. And it was about twice as much as if we'd sat inside or taken away. The single espresso was 75 kc whereas around the corner, my take-away one was 32 kc.

It's still hot and muggy here. And probably will be for awhile yet. It feels like Florida. In fact, the people on the tour from there have all (all two of them! it just felt like more!) felt right at home. When it started to "rain" Friday evening, I think there were three drops of rain and everybody, about 6 people anyway, said "OH NO! IT'S RAINING!!!!" To which I promptly started cracking up.

I am sitting in the Globe bookstore in the new town area. Expats and all that stuff. It's very quiet outside the general tourist areas. I still am going to try to make it to the Torture Museum (total tourist trap) and the Sex Toys Museum (maybe tourist trap??). I went to the Cubist Museum in the Black Madonna Building but it is closed until September. I don't think I'll be making it to the Applied Arts Museum, though.

Made my last stop at the Havelska Market for a couple of bars of Czech chocolate and a souvenir for Nick. Can't say what it is though or he might read this and know what I'm bringing him. I know he's going to like it though. And if he doesn't, I'll keep it because I like it!

Linda, Jean and I are heading to the castle area for one last trip this afternoon and a stop at place where they supposedly make awesome creme brulee, one of my absolute favorite desserts. And if we can't find that, I guess it's one more Pilsner Urquell for the road.

Oh yeah: had the famous, or is that infamous, absinth last night. Not actually bad, if I do say so. But oh my gosh, it's 75 percent alcohol! 150 proof! Made my tongue go hhhhhaaaaa (can't really describe it!). Drank most of it and the Frank, famous Frank, from Florida, finished it off for me. One was enough. More than enough. Thank God for Frank. And he would agree with that.

Ok, well, I'm off again.

If you don't hear from me again, it's because I'm having too much fun on my last day here and since I leave about 6 in the morning for the airport, I might be logging in again from the states to do a last minute update to the record. I'll be posting photos and a trip journal, though.

See you all soon!

Ahoj!!

Saturday morning

This morning first thing I wandered down to Kampa Island and saw the place before all the tourists showed up. So nice and quiet in the morning. Saw a man fishing and his dog decided to "greet" me, loudly and continuously. Probably scared all the fish away!

I'm sitting near Wenseslas Square at an internet cafe - this is the area near the students started the protest in 1989 that started the Velvet Revolution that ended Communism in Czechoslovia. I'm sure all the shops and tourist attractions were not here back then!

I saw a dog yesterday that looked like a little lion/dog combination. He was smooth furred excet for his ears and tail. Of course, I followed him down the street taking his photo! Then a man walking a couple of goldens across the street on the way back to the hotel - had to take his photo as well!

I headed up Petrin Hill yesterday only to find out the the funicular is closed for repair. So I decided to grab a couple of geocaches on the way back to the final dinner. One was called Romeo and Juliet and is "romance"-themed. the clue said "stump". So headed off to the stump that I thought it was in and dug my hand into the leaves and other stuff in the stuff , only to find the BIGGEST toad I ever in my life saw! He was no doubt trying to figure out who was interupting his sleep! He just stared at me the entire time. I took his photo with his beady little eyes staring at me. I can tell you that he was the weirdest thing I have ever encountered in my caching adventures! He was about 6" across and big! I had really dug around in the stump so I am surprised he was not punctured or something! Too funny... I did locate the correct stump about 20' away - it was actually a downed tree lying on its side and I wouldn't have called it a stump. Oh well - we all survived, me and the toad!

Got my phone to send photos again - switched back to the original SIM for photo sending only. Check out the photo of Terezin that I took yesterday. Terezin is the Nazis idea of a camp for Jews where they could have and do what they wanted. At least if you read their information - it was called Hitler's gift to the Jews. It was an interesting place. Took lots of photos so will be posting those when I return.

On my way to Bontonland to buy some local and/or Czech music. And then maybe to the bookstore. I definitely will be going to Tesco to purchase chocolate and plum brandy. Haven't had a chance to try the absinth yet and would really like to at least try it before I go home so tonight is probably the last chance I'll have.

It's kinda interesting when you've been in a place long enough to start to recognize the people begging. I find myself not even needing the map for most places and have been able to navigate using the tram system easily. I've only ridden the metro when we all went together but I think it would be workable.

Several people are going to Cesky Krumlov tomorrow and I would like to as well but it's a 3 hour bus ride each way and I think I would rather relax and maybe go see the Torture Museum or the Sex Toys Museum. Doesn't that sound lots better than another little town??!!

I want to try to get to the Museum of Applied Materials which is the Czech products museum and maybe the Cubist Museum. We'll see. Gotta leave something for the return trip!

We've had a great tour group and we feel like family now.....maybe we'll be doing to anniversary tour some day! Interesting mix of individuals - all areas of life. Youngest in 10th grade - oldest 78 years old.

Off to find the rest of my little impromtu group....

Ahoj!

Czech SIM card not sending photos

Big frown - I can not get the SIM card I bought in Wenseslas Square to send photos. I have not had a chance to go back to the VODAphone store to find out why but maybe today. I think the photos are saving, though, so at least they will go once the SIM thing is straightened out and they will post online. Sorry!!

Wow, it is Thursday already...

I still am having problems with the Czech keyboard so if you find a z or a y in the wrong place, please just switch it!

I wll try to recap, going backwards since I do not have my notes - yesterday we went to the Jewish part of Prague - Josevof. We went to five synagogues and the cemetary. I can say that the Pinkas Synagogue was overwhelming to me, all the names on the walls of the Jewish people who disappeared (died) during WWII. The synagogues are very different in nature from each other. The Spanish one is ornate - the Maisel is neo-Gothic. We did not visit the oldest one but I will try to go back for that one before leaving.

We ate lunch and I had traditional cabbage soup (very good where we were) and pickled sausages, also very good. So far, I have not had anything to eat that was not great. No bad experiences with food. And I have eaten a ton of food! Even with the ř miles or a day that we walk, I am sure I have onlz gained weight. The ice cream (gelato) just will not let me pass by!

We all went off to do our own things and I went geocaching. Snagged four! At one of them, I met a German couple on holiday who was looking for the same thing. So we logged it together! Very fun! We did not even have to exchange contact information since we knew we could see each other online. Hmmmm.....this caching thing is a hit! I need to find a larger container or two to place my travel bugs before leaving. I do not want to bring them home with me - that would be a travesty!

I went on to the Museum of Communism. Going up in the 50s, the big Russian machine was the nightmare of every parent and certainly mine were no exception and instilled the fear of the Commies in me, if not in my brothers, also. Seeing the Communist items there on display and reading the Czech Communist story was fascinating enough but watching the video of the Velvet Revolution and seeing that we had been in the places where those people marched and were beaten was humbling for me. Those students marched for a change and they got it! Very interesting museum.

Still on the list, of course, is the sex toys museum and the torture museum. How kitshky can they be?

We went to the Betheham Chapel - interesting building but I could have gone for the foot massage instead and that would have been a wiser choice for me.

We went to the opening ceremonies of SOKOL, fitness organization. Literally thousands of people doing all sorts of routines. Picture the half-time show at your local high school on steroids and all precisely perfect. What a great followup to the parade I saw accidentally on Sunday. Katka, our guide, outdid herself on that one, I think.

Tuesday was the walk around the Old Town and New Town. I will have to recap that at a later time....it is time for breakfast and I need to log the caches from yesterday.

Not promising anything but I will try to make it back to blog later today. No promises because I found a Thai foot massage place yesterday and did not have time to go in and today is the day for that! I may just die after that!

Ahoj!

Monday night

Ok, I am not doing a good job of posting, am I. I can not figure out this keyboard. Takes me forever to type something because the keys are in different places.

Today, we went to the Prague Castle and had lunch overlooking the gardens. This afternoon, I went to Deer Moat and found an awesome cache. Then this evening, a bunch of us went to hear some great music played by four saxaphones.

Edited to add: our ticket-seller for the sax concert was a young Romanian man named Petr (Petru in Romanian) who is looking for an American love interest. Of course, I just thought I'd bring him home with me and let him go from there!

Going to bed, really long day tomorrow. Old Town and New Town.

Will try and post tomorrow though. Got lots to catch up on....

I'm here in Prague

Well, I made it..... couple of snafus along the way but what trip is worth it's weight in gold/euros/korunas/dollars if there isn't a flexible moment ior two??

My plane left PDX 50 minutes before the one I had tickets for. Kinda weird. I was just hangin' around the airport and mosy'd on over to my gate but there was no one there except the check-in guy and I just happened to say something to him and he asked me what flight I was on and would you believe it - they were waiting for me! They knew I had checked in at the front counter and turns out it was an over-booked flight and they had asked for bumpers and here's this one empty seat, saved just for me. the guy opened the door, said RUN, I RAN, they were just closing the plane door and someone said, wait! it's her and I jumped on the plane. Got to Dulles almost an hour earlier than I thought I was going to and took my time getting to the next gate, which, wouldn't you know it, was clear at the other end of the terminal....as far away from each other as you could get and still be in the airport.

That flight was pretty uneventful - a nice thing to say about a flight. Oh yeah, the PDX-Dulles flight - I sat next to a woman who was hired as an intern by someone who is now my boss's boss's boss. how coincidental is that? Anyway, we had a good chat about that person and I do mean it was a good one. Then on the Dulles-Franfurt flight, I sat next to a couple of women who were headed for the Ukraine for 2 weeks on a mission they do every year for their church.

The Frankfurt-Prague flight was also uneventful Nice to say again! However, I only got about 2 hours sleep on the long flight and I was pretty well exhausted by now.

First impressions - the Czech Republic is green. Just like the Pacific Northwest, in fact. Green rolling hills with a few samll clear-cuts of trees to build with, no doubt. Nothing like you see when you fly into PDX from somewhere, though.

Prague is warm (80s ?) and humid. The English language is not the one you hear among the tourists. In fact, I haven't heard it much at all. A lot of Germans, East Indians, Japanese, and Spanish-speaking tourists. I saw a wedding party go by honking the horns just like they do at home but the bride and groom in a stretch Hummer and driving through the Prague Castle. I saw an old guy in lederhosen. Another bride walking down the Charles Bridge. A guy with a dog begging. Only the dog was asleep and he was crouched over the dog. Lots of colored hair - bright reds, blues, greens, pinks. Lots of colored shoes - yellow and black tiger striped tennis shoes matching her purse. I couldn't take pictures fast enough!

My room wasn't ready when I got here, although I really needed a shower/bath badly, if for no other reason that I needed to kick out some forward jet-lag. But since it wasn't ready, I dropped off my big bag and headed out.

So far today, I've done three geo-caches, eaten a great pasta and chicken lunch and hiked around the Castle and Petrin areas.

I'm sure I'm rambling but consider this - I'm operating on about 3 hours total sleep in the last 32 hours or so and I'm still trying to stay up for another couple before dying in bed. The room is really cool - very old. There might as well not be walls, I can tell ya!

Tomorrow, breakfast 8-11 at the hotel in the little garden and then off for some more sightseeing before meeting up with the Rick Steves group at 3, when we all troop off to the National Museum and some other place, riding the tram to get there. Maybe I'll get a metro ticket and head out myself in the morning.

Oh yeah - had another Policie type experience. The transportation I hired to get me to my hotel was stopped at an impromtu police stop - they just put stop signs in the road, the driver has to get out and open the trunk and hood. The police men look under the vehicles with mirrors, they all glare at each other and we go on. Pretty interesting.

Well, I'm heading out to find some food and then head back to the hotel.

Hope you're all having as much fun as I am!

Pardon the spelling errors - I can never get the spell-check to work and I'm too tired to go back and check it myself.

Ahoj!