June 5, 2007

Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 14:21:01 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Days #1 and #2 in Praha: June 5 and June 6...

Dobry den,

I had allotted the most amount of time on this trip to Prague. From everything
I had heard of it, ("so beautiful, so wonderful"...) I had my expectations
high, so I had given myself a full 5 days and 4 nights to this city, and timed
the Prague portion of this trip pursposely to coincide with my birthday. Well,
Prague met and exceeded all my expectations -- it *IS* "so beautiful" and "so
wonderful"! But as things turned out, my actual birthday was pretty uneventful!

The first day -- June 5 -- the train arrived in Prague early in the morning (I
had been up for the last 2 hours of the journey, listening to my roadtrip cd's
mp3 songs). I went to the hotel to check in, and surprisingly, THEY HAD A ROOM
available! I was expecting to leave my bags there and go explore the city...
Well, I checked in, went up to my room, took a short nap, got ready and left
comfortably past noon...

No breakfast or lunch yet, I just started walking... Didn't take the metro
either -- didn't feel like it!

Somehow made my way to the "Powder Tower", so called because it used to be a
storage tower for gunpowder during the middle ages. I climbed to the top for
the views of the city -- great views and wonderful cool breeze to counter my
huffing and puffing when I finally reached the top. I didn't stay too long,
getting hungry so came back down and walked to the nearby "Old Town Square" --
Prague's central square, surrounded by churches and houses with outdoor cafes
and the standard "tourist traps" all around.. Wonferful place, but my I had my
priorities -- I needed food!

I went and sat down in one of the cafes, looking at the prices in the menu,
then getting up and going to the next restaurant, looking at THOSE menu prices,
and finally deciding not to go to the next one. The exchange rate is roughly
20:1 CZK:USD. The lunch was roughly 600 CZK, or about $30. Well, at the time I
thought it was far too much for a single meal (especially *lunch*), but this
was a tourist area... And I'd keep coming back here over the next 5 days
anyway, and end up spending even more!

Well, after lunch I hung around in the square, not really going inside any of
the buildings or churches. There was a Salvador Dali museum, a Franz Kafka
museum, and I think 3 churches... I didn't go in any of those... just roamed
around outside and stopping at all the ice cream carts along the way.

One of the highlights is a 16th century astronomical clock, which shows -- and
this is from my tourbook, not my memory -- a solar clock, lunar clock,
astrological clock (zodiac), and a calendar! Also, every hour it chimes while
some animated statues above it move around... quite interesting considering its
400 years old! There are also a couple of windows above where every hour
statues of the 12 Apostles "walk through"...

I like the next part ;)

My tourbook said that making your way from Old Town Square to Charles Bridge
(my next sightseeing destination) is an adventure in itself, and tourists are
"guaranteed" to get lost. But not to worry, you should allow yourself to be
lost in the tiny streets there -- that is part of the charm.

Well, I was looking at my map and wondering how I could possibly get lost just
walking down... it looked pretty obvious from my map... "Nah, I'm not gonna get
lost, this is easy!"

I got lost.

Not for long, I found the Vitava river pretty quick and just walked up to
Charles Bridge...

Hmm.. This is a famous pedestrian-only (i.e. tourist-only) bridge across the
Vitava river. The "first" bridge in Prague, 600 years old, and seen its share
of bloody battles and executions. My tourbook said that the best time to visit
this bridge is in the evening, since the crowds are lower. Well, it was evening
when I reached there...

In Budapest I had "missed" all the nighttime lights/views of the city, I sure
as hell was not going miss anything this time! It wasn't raining today so I
decided to hang around there, just waiting for it to get dark. In between,
walking up and down that bridge taking pictures of all the statues on it. (I
didn't rub the Statue of St John -- according to tradition, its supposed to
bring you good luck. I'd find out why later).

The sunset wasn't until well past 9:30, and it didn't get completely dark until
after 10. Until then I was just walking around on both sides of the bridge and
on the bridge, listening to one guy making music using crystal water glasses,
and watching the boats (and swans) go by under the bridge, all the while
keeping my eye on Prague castle, waiting for the lights to turn on...

When the sun finally went down, the lights on Prague castle, the Charles
Bridge, and a few buildings on the other bank of the river were GORGEOUS! It
was a perfect day, calm wind, and all the lights reflecting in the river! Just
beautiful.... I wish I had seen that in Budapest with the parliament building
reflecting in the Danube the same way!

It was a long day of walking, finally I took the metro back to the motel, and
slept in the next morning (June 6th)...

June 4 Contents June 6