Let Me Tell you About Prague.....

Prague: go now, before it is completely ruined. It's unbelievable but there are more American tourists here than at Disneyland (in fact, they sometimes resemble each other..). Prague is a fantastic city of history and culture, but it is quickly changing. Completely overrun by tourists seeking the cheapness of the city, it is getting worse every day. Next year, the Euro will go into effect, completely changing the inexpensive hideaway I used to know. Five years ago when I was there last, it did not seem so bad. Now, you can't walk 2 feet without hearing "the ugly American". Still, there's a lot to see here. We spent almost 3 days here, and we could have stayed a few more. We missed the Jesus Barbie!! Between the Kafka references (Kafka slept here, he ate a sausage here, etc), the sausages, the Jews, the puppets
(s-c-a-r-y), the beer (origin of Budweiser, called Budvar), and trying to figure out the money (Kroners), Prague is a city you can't be bored with.

This is Charles Bridge, one of the most famous landmarks in Prague. It is very old, built in 1300's, and has statues of Saints and other famous Czech guys on it. Today, it harbors artists and others selling their wares, and performers. It's the greatest place for people watching!

This is a statue on the bridge that you are supposed to touch, for luck. By the look on Jen's face you can tell she wanted nothing to do with it. It's more like "I'm going to get you back for this when you least expect it...". Or "I can't wait to wash my hands". Great.

Does the photo on the right look familiar? It was where Mission Impossible was filmed. This is one of the towers at the end of the bridge. Prague was a medieval city, and these towers, seen along the city, are from the walls that used to surround the city to protect it.

Another extremely popular people watchig place in Prague is Old Town Square, or Staro-Mestske Namesti (I can't make the squiggly lines above the letters like they do, but you get the point). This square has been the center of Prague since the 10th century!!! Tons of cafes and markets to spend your Western hard-earned dollars. The photo below is of St Nicholas church, built in the 1730's. Built in Baroque style, it is a bit more "modern" than the rest of the medieval buildings around it. The square, as is most of the streets, is made completely of cobblestone.

Probably the reson that so many people come to this square is the Astronomical Clock. The guy who "gave" it to the city was said to be blinded afterwards so he could not duplicate it. The clock was put in place in 1490. On the hour, all the little figure move and dance, music plays, and all the tourists stand below it and gasp, as if an Alien had stuck his head out and said hi. It's a great thing to know it has stood up to 600 years of weathering, but it doesn't do anything worth gasping over. See for yourself as the lovely Jen takes the reverse tourist position (you should be looking at it, not me). You can work your way around the square if you can avoid the tour groups walking past you, the leader always carrying something big as to be noticed through the crowd. Bus tours, you gotta love 'em!

This is an interesting photo. The crosses you see on the ground (the ones the toursits are standing on) are a memorial to 27 Czech Protestant nobels that were beheaded on this spot in 1621. I found it very interesting to be standing on the same spot where guys were beheaded because they lost the war. Crazy!

Prague castle (Prazsky hrad) is just one more famous and beautiful places. This photo on the left is of the church on the castle grounds, which cover an area larger than 7 football fields (only an American would know how big that is) and has a history back to the 9th century. There is a part of the castle grounds which used to house the sharpshooters, and later artists called the Golden Lane. You guesed it, Kafka lived here with his sister in the tiniest room I have ever been in. I wasn't impressed.

The grounds have 3 courtyards, at least 4 churches, a toy museum, and about 4 towers, on of which we decided to climb. Only 297 steps, no problem! We are fit, we live in the mountains! What we didn't realize is for those 297 steps, you are in a very tiny spiral staircase. Claustrophobics beware! The view from the top was worth it, but I probably wouldn't have gone back for anything I left up there. We also went in the Crypt, a creepy basement with a lot of rubble and dead people.

Inside the church, there are huge stained glass windows. You have to at least appreciate the work that went into these!

Below, the castle as seen from afar. On the right, you can see Charles Bridge.

The oldest cemetary in Europe is in Prague, called the Jewish Cemetary. There are many Jewish cemetaries in Prague, but this one, the oldest and most famous, has nothing to do with WII. The oldest grave dates to 1439. It was closed in 1787 due to the fact that they had piled so many people on top of each other, there was no more room! There are probably 100,000 people buried here. And guess what?? In one of the other cemetaries, Kafka is buried.

And finally, our little sanctuary in all the craziness was a place called The Globe. It is an English bookstore/cafe/internet cafe/resturant. I remember it in another location, smaller, and only serving pastries and the biggest coffees I had ever seen. With all the popularity, it has grown enough to move into a bigger, cooler place and added a resturant, where we dove into a huge pile of chips and salsa with a side of burritos. This is still the best place to buy books by Czech writers that have been translated to English - not found anywhere else in the world.You can see the distress on my face because Jen was taking too long to get there.....

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