(and by "Lucille" i mean "Prague".)
apparently i haven't updated this once since i've been in Prague. sorry about that.
so, let's see... i stayed one night in a party hostel. crappy beds and loud kids and totally not my scene. and i mean really crappy bed. orphanage-style bed frames, and lawn-furniture pads instead of mattresses. bleh. the second hostel is much, much better. Chili Hostel, look it up.
the only bad thing i can say about this hostel is that breakfast isn't free, and there's no elevator. staying on the sixth floor isn't so easy with 30 lbs on your back when you arrive and leave the city. anyway.
i've seen castles and the Sedlec Ossuary and wandered the streets of Prague for days. I've spent a good deal of my nights with other hostelers, for maybe the first time since i started travelling i've felt like i made friends. which was very, very nice after a month of Single Serving Friends. anyway.
HelpX finally came through! i'm going back to Italy tomorrow! staying the night in Florence, then taking a train to Cortona where i'll apparently be picked up by the couple that runs the olive grove where i'll be working. not sure what the internet status is, or completely clear on the work or sleep situation, so it's one big adventure all around. don't even know how long i'll be there, or if i'll be paid anything at all besides food & shelter. adventure.
i had goulash the other night, and i've also tried Budvar. goulash is a traditional Czech meal, ridiculously filling and not too heavy on taste. it was good. Budvar is one of the first beers made in Czech, created in Czech, and either stolen or exported as Budweiser. but it tastes very different.
i've not been eating much breakfast, and pasta pretty consistently for dinner. tonight i have pasta with bolognese sauce, and an apple. delicious!
oh! they sell Communist Army & Navy belts at some souvenir shops here! i wants one! the Navy belt has a silver buckle with the Communist logo over an anchor, and a black belt. DO WANT! i'd buy one but it's about $40. so i'll google or ebay it and see what's what before i commit. (edit: just checked. yeah, it's on ebay for $30, free shipping. and it's totally awesome. BUY ME ONE!)
oh! on Sunday night i watched Straw Dogs at an expat coffeehouse. that was kinda odd. great great movie, but being in Prague, surrounded by Americans, most of whom live there, and none of them talked to me and i talked to none of them, i dunno. it was nice. i didn't even realize i missed the cinema experience. also i ate "Real American beef chili", and it was great.
one day i paid 500 Czech crowns for a Communism & Underground Bunker tour, along with four of my hostelmates. the Communism part was kind of boring and mostly not worth it, but the Underground Bunker was awesome! we were led all throughout one that is apparently rented out for parties and concerts and such, then we were each given a beer (which we quickly dubbed either Bunker Beer or Communist Unity Beer), and shown photos of Communist events in Prague. the rise, the fall, the death, everything. it was surprisingly somber. then party time again when we were allowed to try on authentic gas masks and communist army uniform jackets & hats. so i can now proudly say there is a photo in existence of me in a gas mask. i get to check (Czech?) that off my list. so it was good, generally.
almost forgot to talk about Kutna Hora and the Sedlec Ossuary. Kutna Hora is the town where the Ossuary is, FYI. very sleepy, friendly, rather nice town. if i come back to Czech Republic, i may stay in Kutna Hora just for the general feel of the place. so, Sedlec. sorry Alina, the skulls were all tagged like cows or expensive items at the store. so no skull for you. i was a little disappointed in the local gift shops, too. not nearly weird or morbid enough for the attraction they're leeching off of. anyway. back to Sedlec. you walk in, pay 50 crowns (about $2 at most), then go down the stairs. immediately at the bottom, on the right, is the name of the decorator, spelled out in bones. right in front of you is a chandelier made up of at least one of every single bone in the human body. in the four corners, fenced off, are free-standing pyramids of human bones. skulls and tibias and scapulas oh my. at the four corners around the chandelier are small towers with skulls and a few other bones tastefully arranged up them, until they culminate in a statue of a cherub. the statue is usually holding an actual human skull. to the left of the stairs is apparently some royal shield, formed out of bones. it's completely bizarre and more than a little morbid and i took plenty of pictures. no postcard this time, mom, don't worry. after the Ossuary i walked around Kutna Hora with a random Canadian i met walking there. it was a good day all around.
today so far: had breakfast and wandered the town with the French & German & Assyrian kids who were in my hostelroom last night. we napped in a park. it was much fun, but i don't have any proof that it happened. then i wandered to a mall, one of the first i've seen in all of Europe. that was okay, but definitely something i don't miss. i bought a flashlight to replace the one i lost, and another pair of sunglasses to replace my first replacement pair, which themselves got scratched up. good times. soon is dinner, then, i dunno. it's my last night in Prague, i wanna do something special. on the other hand, i've been staying up too late lately, and i'm a little under the weather. we'll see how i feel after eating, i guess. wish me luck!
man, Prague is stupid cheap. if you ever get the chance, you need to come here. so much history and culture, so little money. i think, of all the places i've seen thus far in my travels, Prague may be my favorite. well, factoring out the families i've stayed with and that. (sorry Mel & Nicola!)
so i guess that's it for this update. let me know if i missed anything, yeah? thanks for coming!
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