Nothing But Words

Maria and the boys have been in Prague for a month, and I’ve been with them for the past week. We’ve had 2 days in Prague, 2 days in Budapest, and then 2 days back here in Prague. Now I need to catch up with blogging – I’ll start with my first 2 days.

Prague’s architecture is overwhelming. If you randomly selected a building from Prague, and transported it to a city like Philadelphia or Boston, it would stand out as one of the city’s remarkable buildings. But here there is one finely detailed Medieval, Baroque, or Renaissance building after another. The occasional Soviet-era faceless and bland concrete building actually isn’t unwelcome.

I didn’t sleep on my overnight flight here, so on my first day I followed Maria around town in a mental fog. The buildings were so dazzling I was taking pictures of practically everything I walked past (after a couple hours the realization that I needed to be a bit more judicious with the camera eventually penetrated my foggy head). She mainly took me around the “Old Town” area.

The language, with it’s heavy mix of consonants, is a challenge. A phrase as simple as “thank you” takes some practice for an American. It’s also tricky to sound out words when doing things like reading off a menu, because the pronunciation of certain letters isn’t the same as English and there are several unfamiliar inflection marks (like ě and ý). Fortunately, most of the people we’ve encountered so far either speak at least a small amount of English (especially young people), or are patient enough to work things out with hand gestures. However, outside the touristy areas they tend to get impatient with clueless Americans.

Czech food is tasty but very heavy, and Czech beer is really good (although I say this as someone who knows nothing about beer – to me it tastes smoother and less bitter than most American beers). Fortunately the Italian restaurants here are also very good, as the Czech food is just too much after a while. After seeing people shop in the grocery stores for the past month, Maria’s impression is that a lot of the Czech people do in fact eat sausages, schnitzels, goulash, etc on a daily basis.

The streets are cleaner than most American cities (even outside the tourist areas), and the subways and trams are modern and efficient. On average the people are much quieter than Americans – friends will chat quietly, and even a crowded subway platform is relatively silent.

On my second day we rented a paddle boat from Slovansky island in the Vltova river (the river separates the two sides of Prague) – some of my nicer pictures are from the paddle boat. Then in the late afternoon we returned to the apartment to pack for our 2 day trip to Budapest.

View at Picasa The St. Gallus Church in Old Town – built in the 13th century28-Jul-2009 20:06, SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Traditional Czech food – goulash, schnitzel, and a noodle casserole – heavy stuff28-Jul-2009 20:19, SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Near Old Town Square28-Jul-2009 20:55, SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa The Powder Tower, in Old Town28-Jul-2009 21:01, SONY DSC-W55, 8.0, 8.2mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The art nouveau Municipal House, home to Prague’s largest concert hall28-Jul-2009 21:05, SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The Jan Hus Memorial, with the Tyn Church behind it28-Jul-2009 21:57, SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa Old Town Square and the Pastel Houses28-Jul-2009 21:58, SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The Havelska street market28-Jul-2009 22:04, SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The boys reaction to our suggestion to go out29-Jul-2009 19:21, SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa One end of the Charles Bridge – the Klementium (national library), Smetana Museum, and the St. Francis of Assisi chruch29-Jul-2009 20:30, SONY DSC-W55, 13.0, 18.9mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa View along the Vltava river, from the Legii bridge29-Jul-2009 20:50, SONY DSC-W55, 8.0, 7.2mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The National Theater29-Jul-2009 21:16, SONY DSC-W55, 5.2, 18.9mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa The controversial Dancing House, designed by Frank Gehry29-Jul-2009 21:33, SONY DSC-W55, 5.2, 18.9mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The boys enjoying a milkshake at Cafe Slavia – one of Prague’s grand old cafes29-Jul-2009 22:43, SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Lahudky – Czech open face sandwiches30-Jul-2009 01:03, SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100