Day 3’s subtitle would be “walking.” Radek, Elise and I took the train into town and walked all about Prague. I wish I could recount accurate details of everywhere we walked and everything we saw, but we probably walked Praha 1 for the better part of 5 hours and, well, it was, in a word, overwhelming. October 28th is Czech Republic’s Independence Day, so I don’t know if that means the streets were more or less busy, but they seemed pretty busy to us. We started out in Old Town (Stare Mesto), then to Old Town Square (Stare Namesti) where the highlight (for me) was seeing the Prague Astronomical Clock (watch the cool 600th anniversary video). Then we had lunch at U Å pirků where I indulged in a meal fit for a Bohemian (duck, “roasted meat” and two kinds of dumplings). This is also where learned of the new-to-me culinary term: greaves. Feel free to look that one up on your own.
After lunch we visited the famous Charles Bridge (Karlov Most), the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) and Malá Strana. Tons of walking, but we had a blast seeing the city and spending some quality time with Radek. After taking the train back to the house, we were greeted by Jana who’d cooked a traditional Czech meal of ground pork, leeks and sausage “loaf” and potatoes.
After dinner, Radek, Elise and I took a cab back into the city to see a production of WOW at the Black Light Theatre, a full dream sequence production performed without words and under the lights of black lights. It was a really cool multimedia and audience-involved show that involved synthesized snow, over-sized glowing beach balls, human spiders that launched into the audience (and scared the hell out of quite a few people) and rain. Radek’s sister, Lucia is a tenured member of the cast and treated the three of us to the performance. Definitely a great show and worth checking out if you’re in Prague.
The evening’s entertainment was overshadowed by Radek stepping into a steaming pile of dog shit as we were making our way through the streets after leaving the theatre. Instead of taking a cab back the house, Radek thought it would be best to take the train because, as he said, “we take tram because cab driver think I make shit in pants”; which was hilarious because 1) the Czech accent in which it was said 2) the formal [language] barrier that previously existed had crumbled and 3) when a friend steps in dog shit on a busy city street, well, that’s just funny stuff.
Photos of our third day can be seen here.
Wow-I would so like to see the clock. I bet you have more pictures. I’ll treat at the Indian Restaurant if you’ll tell me all about it!