Breaking records and our visit to Prague

Vít mentioned last night that the record of anyone staying in this apartment without going outside was 6 days by one of their friends, a graduate student who was just simply too lazy to go out. I'm halfway to the record with 3 days indoors already. I'm now down with a bad cold so I'm staying indoors and resting. Libor is doing a good job taking care of me. :-) The first day, Monday, I spent all day (and a short day it was, with short sunlight hours!) in bed watching Episodes 1 and 2 of Star Wars that I got from Chapa. :-D Libor spent the day in the kitchen cooking soup - he made like 2 liters of vegetable soup from scratch using the garden vegetables his mom gave us. We've been eating soup every day since. I think we'll finally run out tomorrow. Yesterday I spent all day in this chair playing with photoshop, learning how to make "pop art inspired by lichtenstein" - the results will be posted as soon as I'm done. My next step is to add the colors. :-) (No I haven't been studying Italian... *head hanging in shame*)

I've just finished my "Czech breakfast" - tea, bread with butter and sliced fresh vegetables - and am ready to get this post in about the trip to Prague.

Prague was VERY good. I really enjoyed myself. :-) We took a bus to Prague on Thursday afternoon - it was a luxury service at half the cost and half the time of a train to Prague! We had a movie (a Czech movie, but there were English subtitles! yayyyyy!), free magazines and newspapers (all in Czech of course), free drink, and then a complimentary bar of chocolate when we got off the bus. :-D Cost? $7. :-)

We stayed with Libor's cousin (his Mom's nephew) who lives in a studio in the south part of Prague in a former hotel. What you think of as studio is not the case here. He has a bathroom (more like a shower), a toilet, a kitchen, an entryway, then the bedroom. It was enough for one person or a couple, for sure... Radim, his cousin, owns his own business, and now is the season for his business. So, the only time we saw him was when he picked us up from the bus station, dropped us off at his apartment, we didn't see him until the following morning, then again the following night when he took us to the top of his building so we could get a good view of Prague and the surrounding lands. His building is not one of the tallest in Prague, but because it is on a hill, it's one of the highest points. We saw so many satellites used by different network businesses. He pointed out a several million crown satellite that is owned by one of the biggest internet providers in Czech. Wow. We all touched it, of course. *evil grin* Besides that though, I don't think I'd ever want Libor to work like Radim does. That's just too much.

We explored on our on Thursday night and Friday all day. We saw Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square with the Astronomical Clock, Josefov (the old Jewish ghetto), Charles Bridge, the National Theatre... we were all over downtown Prague. :-) Libor showed me the "Fred and Ginger" building that was a joint project of two architects, one Czech and one American. It really looks like Fred Astaire dancing with Ginger Rogers - Fred is the strict gray building that is "holding" the curvaceous and glassy Ginger that hangs over the street. :-) It houses a Dutch bank, I think. We were looking for this statue of Rabbi Loew (the creator of Golem), but we couldn't find it. :-( Instead we found the restaurant Golem so I got pictures of that. :-) We then decided we were hungry and wanted to go to a pub (food is cheaper), and I saw this place that looked good, U Medvídku, and when we saw the logo of the pub, we realized this is one of the places I wanted to visit in Prague. :-) U Medvídku means, "At the Little Bears." It has been open for about 500 years. The guidebook says this about U Medvidku: "Noisy, over-lit and friendly as they come, At the Little Bears has five centuries as a beerhall behind it. Having brushed off communism as a passing fad, the bar keeps the fine, cheep Budvar coming until you tell the waiter to stop." Indeed, the waiter was almost disappointed that we only had 2 beers each! We had pub grub, Czech style - I ordered the roast boar with potato dumplings and spinach. :-) MMM, delicious.

Also on Friday we found a pub for lunch, which was I think even more traditional Czech pub than U Medvidku - we arrived after the lunch rush and they only had a limited offering for lunch and the waiter was pretty insistent that we decide what we wanted so that he could get it for us before the cooks prepared the evening meals. Libor said, service is nonexistent in a place like this - you get what they have, not what you want. :-) The food was BETTER than U Medvidku - I had the beef goulash with dumplings, Libor had the roasted chicken with some kind of chicken pie that had nutmeg in it. Libor was astonished to see me eating all 5 of the dumplings - at his parents' house you can't get me to eat 2! This pub, you went in the doorway and went down the stairs. I read that many places in Prague are like this because for one reason or another they'd had to make the streets higher to avoid flooding from the Vltava River, so all the street level places actually became basement havens that you entered at street level.

I enjoyed Charles Bridge - I think that was my favorite part of Prague. It was built by Charles IV, who was also the Holy Roman Emperor. There was a bridge at that site but it was ruined in a flood a few years before so he had this one built. It was finished in 1357, and he picked a very unique day and time for the bridge to be dedicated - in 1357, on 9th of July, at 5:31. 1357 9 7 531. The bridge is lined with statues that were all added at different times. The bridge looks straight, but when you look at it from the top of one of the towers at either end of the bridge, you can see it is not straight at all. :-) There are also tons of vendors and just people from all over the world. Libor didn't hear a word of Czech when we were on the bridge, ha! Indeed, when in Prague, he didn't hear much Czech at all.

Another favorite part of Prague for me, are the "pasaž" that link parts of Prague with each other - the passageways between buildings that you can walk through to a small square or to another street... it's all like an adventure. :-) These passages were made by buildings that were torn down, and as a result were new "streets" connecting to others.

On Friday afternoon we took a bus out to see Chapa (short for Michael čapka), who is a student at Charles University and lives in housing provided by the university. The housing is weird - in Czech there's these awful architectural giants left from Communism that Libor and I call boxes. That's exactly what they are - concrete slabs with windows. They are UGLY. You can see them in every city/town that had some kind of industrial purpose during Communism. Chapa lives in _Box City_, all for university students in Prague, not just Charles University. The suites are basically 2 bedrooms shared by 4 people, a bathroom (shower), a toilet, a pantry, a kitchen, and cabinets that serve as wardrobes for all of the roommates. However, it was a free place for us to stay and a good base for us during our visit in Prague. :-) He was our guide on Saturday, and we had alot of fun. We were supposed to go to Prague Castle to see one part of the castle that is only open a few times a year (the state rooms), but we had a lot we wanted to do and when we saw the line and the horrible weather (it was freezing rain), we decided to check out this pub that was in my guidebook. This pub, translated as "At the Black Ox," is a classic Czech pub that needs to be experienced to be understood. It's the epitome of Czech culture that I've seen in small towns, untouched by the West (well touched, yes, but highly resisted). This is one of the last few places in Prague where you can get a reasonably-priced beer (by Czech standards), and you will see locals dressed in their work clothes, gathering together for their break, lunch, after work, dinner, etc. :-) Also near Prague Castle we went to Golden Lane, which is right inside the castle walls and all the houses are connected by a pathway in the roofs that was used by sharpshooters defending the castle. We got to go up there and walk along the passageway, which was kind of neat. I just thought it was a waste of my money though because it was all shops selling touristy stuff, nothing of the history. You pay money to spend money, I thought that was just a little weird.

Chapa took us to his faculty (where he goes to classes), which also has botanical gardens. We arrived shortly after sunset, but it was still soothing to walk up and down hills on the paths. I'll definitely want to come back here. Another piece of interesting information about this place... On 17 listopadu (November), 1989 (yes, 17 years ago this Friday), a group of students gathered in front of the botanical gardens and marched down to Wenceslas Square. On 17 listopadu, this group of students started the Velvet Revolution that ended Communism in Czechoslovakia. When they told me this I got goosebumps on my arms just thinking that I was standing on such important grounds, and this happened within my lifetime. Wow. If it wasn't for this group of students, I wouldn't be here now and I certainly wouldn't have met Libor.

I better end this post - I'm pretty tired and should probably take a nap, ha. I'm trying to figure out a way to get the pictures in some kind of photo gallery online so it is open for all of you to look at... tons of stuff from Prague.