Sevilla was cool, I'm a sucker for arabesque architecture so I spent less than 36 hours in the city and walked away with more than 300 pictures. I still need to go through those. This weekend I went to Prague to visit Kayleigh and since it's fresher in my mind I'll skip to that trip.
I got from Madrid to Prague on Wednesday without anyone checking my passport. Not when I checked in in Madrid, not when I went through security, not when I boarded my first flight to Frankfurt, not when I boarded my second flight from Frankfurt to Prague, and not when I left the airport in Prague. At least I didn't have any liquids or gels in large packages! Now we're all safe. It's nice that you don't have to take off your shoes in European airport security checks. In the Frankfurt airport I made a beeline for the bathroom but was still kind of in the flight zone. As I walked in I noticed a smell. As I was in the stall I heard a male voice. As I washed my hands I noticed an older middle-aged lady standing there completely naked from the waist down. I'd rather have diarrhea in my pants than stand in the middle of an airport bathroom with no underwear on. Or just stand in the stall while your husband does whatever to the clothing! Welcome to Germany.
Kayleigh met me at the airport and somehow we found each other. I got some Czech money in the airport. She suggested taking out a 1000 czk, and a 1000 czk bill pops out of the machine. Hard not to think of it as play money when it comes in ridiculous denominations. I think it's about 20 czk/ $1 USD, and for once I was finally in a place where the U.S. dollar has more buying power. The Euro gets depressing. We ventured to her dorm by public transportation. Their system for tickets on public transportation is the worst I've ever heard of. People without a monthly pass are supposed to buy a ticket then validate it on the bus, train, or tram. However, there is no accountability except when plainclothes people do ticket checks and levy fines. That never happened while I was riding public transportation.
Kayleigh's dorm setup was pretty sweet. She shares a room with one other girl and it is about the size of our VCE and Darnall rooms put together, complete with their own bathroom. But the system seems a little weird because it's all American students and the staff don't really speak English, and the students have to stop at the desk every time they come in and out to drop off/pick up their room key. It was tricky trying to have Kayleigh explain my presence to the staffers, who were different each evening and each had different policies. I slept on a pull-out chair.
Thursday was...my only traditional Czech meal, I guess. I had potato pancakes and some kind of chicken with fruit dumplings for dessert. It was pretty good.
Thursday afternoon we walked around a bit in St. Wenceslas Square and Old Town and met up with Kayleigh's friend and fellow Montanan who was hosting a visitor from Barcelona. He kept saying "gracias" to everyone. The only Czech I picked up was (SP?????) "y qui" which means thank you. All Czech words sound the same to me. When the trams would announce the stops, I could not differentiate between them at all.
It was cold[er] in Prague! But I discovered mulled wine, hot wine with spices sold by street vendors. I felt so European. I love Madrid, but it doesn't have the same "cute" factor as Prague.
We went around to several bars, enjoying Czech beer. I made the unfortunate mistake of telling the owner of an Irish pub that I used to Irish stepdance and was obliged to stumblingly perform to Turkey in the Straw. Then we realized it was 1 a.m. or something and we had failed to eat dinner. We went to KFC. It was my first KFC meal in a long time...but not my last...
Friday we slept in deliciously late and had Chinese food for lunch. It was bland so I added soy sauce (I never do this because I hate saltiness) and ended up adding too much. Then we went to Prague Castle, where we looked at St. Vitus's Cathedral. We went up the tower of the Astronomical Clock. We crossed the Charles Bridge and headed into the Jewish Quarter, but it was pretty much too late to see much.
Friday night we went to the opera. We were running late and wanted to grab something before the performance, so we had KFC. We saw Aida, a tragic tale of star-crossed lovers. It was my first opera. I enjoyed it.
Saturday was our museum day. We went to the National Museum, where we saw an exhibit on the founding of the Czech Republic that rather inexplicably stopped around 1938 with signed original copies of the Munich Agreement. Nothing happened after that, right? We also went to the Mucha Museum, a museum devoted to a prominent Czech artist of the Art Nouveau movement. The video tried to claim that he was more influential than any of the other artists of the movement, including Toulouse-Latrec...but in that case I think Mr. Page would have told us about him. I liked his work, but it was a bit of a strange setup since his most iconic works were posters. (This museum had a much better gift shop than the Prado. I'm actually kind of disappointed in the Prado gift shop). We had a delicious Italian meal that evening.
We had thought about going out for absinthe that evening, which Kayleigh seems to have enjoyed, but she wasn't feeling that well and I was honestly too scared to do it by myself, so we just stayed in. Probably for the best since I got up at 5:30 this morning to go to the airport! I'm dead tired right now, hence the cliché title. I am proud to report that my passport was examined on this leg of my journey. I spent all of my remaining czk but 3 (it's nice that vending machines there take all coins), including a "Capri-Sonne" for 15 czk. I think I've always had romantic ideas about entering and exiting a plane on the tarmac but this trip has cured me. It's annoying having to pile on and off the bus. You're also much more at the mercy of the speed of your fellow passengers. I grab my packpack and all but run. My flight from Prague to Munich was my first ever on a propeller plane. I love European airlines because even on a 45 minute flight they feed you and offer you whatever you want to drink. In the U.S., you're lucky the soft drinks are still free. Can't remember the last time I got a bag of pretzels or peanuts. The Munich airport was pretty pijo, filled with designer shops and cute-looking restaurants. But I was glad to get back to Madrid.
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