Four Days in Prague

Prague is a beautiful city. The buildings are incredible. Each seems to be different from the other. Most that we saw have statues over or next to the entry. Many have statues around windows or on top of the building. Buildings that were not painted had the black from coal soot. Buildings that could be painted were painted all shades of earth tones or light colors. Most painted buildings had different color trim. We were really awed by the beauty of the city. The sidewalks and roads were frequently new cobblestone or brick in nice patterns.

We were in Prague 4 full days and saw lots of the old historic sites. The city has five areas that made it very easy to navigate: Castle Quarter, Old Quarter that had the Jewish Quarter in it, New Quarter and Little Quarter.

There are some similarities in the Czech Republic to Romania.

• Menus have measurements for each item…100 mg of meat, .41 liter of beer. The cups and glasses frequently had the measurement on the glass. We read that this is left over from Communism where everything was supposedly open and exact.

• There is a very extensive tram, trolley and subway system. It is well utilized in both cities. We never seemed to wait more than 5 minutes for our train regardless of where we were going or when.

• Lots of people were on the streets walking…to the grocery, bakery, work, home. Everyone was walking.

• Most under 40 speak English.

We read that goulash and different dumplings are traditional Czech food. So we ordered that for our first meal. Chuck got the goulash with bread dumplings and I got stuffed dumplings. We were both surprised. Chuck’s was beef with gravy and the dumplings were boiled or steamed bread dough. Jan’s was more like a dessert. It was bread dumplings stuffed with sweet strawberries with cheese and cinnamon-sugar on top.

We decided to venture into other foods for our other meals and were more successful. We found a nice little bakery for breakfast that had seats and hot drinks. Jan got hot chocolate and was in heaven. It is more like a combination of dark hot chocolate and chocolate pudding. The ad for it was a straw in a chocolate chunk and that was what it was like.

Our last night we ate a pub and shared a table with a couple from Moscow (they didn’t deliberately put the tourists together.) Nina spoke a little English…more than the Russian that Jan remembered. And now we have friends who have invited us to stay with them when we come to Moscow.

Jan’s cousin Ricki lives in Prague and suggested we visit the Franz Kafka Museum. It was well worth it but the reason it’s in the blog is because of the fountain in the courtyard. Their hips move back and forth and their penises go up and down.

The last picture is of Ricki and us. She works at Radio Free Europe and is creating and training for the inclusion of video feeds in the 20 countries that RFE services. She took us on a tour of the facilities, headquartered in Prague. It was really interesting to learn about this organization that we’ve heard about but don’t need in the US. It provides unbiased news about the country in which it broadcasts. And Ricki is developing RFE’s entrance into online videos.