Jenni
& Joe
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Prague,
Czech Republic
Sunday,
July 29
Prague,
Czech Republic! We wipe our sleepy eyes after a long overnight train ride from
Munich as we arrive at Prague's main train station at 8:15 AM. The night was long
because twice between 3 and 4 am, train personnel awakened us for a passport check.
Although it's standard operating procedure to check passports at the border, they
are rude awakenings. As soon as we arrive in Prague, we realize we don't know
any of the Czech language and very little about the country. Our first step in
each new country is to go straight to the ATM to get some money. We quickly realize
we don't even know what the money here is called or how much it's worth. Luckily,
an English-speaking hostel-hawker fills us in that 40 Czech "Krowns" are worth
one dollar. 
We
are tired, but fortunately, we have made arrangements to stay with friends in
Prague. Des Acosta, a corporate lawyer, is like family because Des is the brother
of Joe's best friend Dean Acosta. We arrive at the apartment by following his
excellent directions he sent by e-mail. We talk for hours with Des and hit it
off famously with his roommate Bill. We are so psyched to be talking English and
sharing and learning from world travelers like our generous hosts.
It
turns out they have a TV with English-language satellite programming! Yeah! And
a washer and dryer!!! Yahhoooo! We've only been gone 4 weeks, but we realize we
are already missing TV. Although we need naps, we need television more. We get
our fix on CNN and MTV and other kinds of British programming. We take a short
nap (in the most comfortable bed!), and later go out for Mexican food.
Yup, Tex-Mex -we were missing that too! Des and Bill take us to a restaurant called
Mama Lucy's where we order chicken fajitas and burritos. It's very average by
San Antonio standards, but it's scrumptious compared to baguettes at this point.
After
dinner, we all take a walk out to the Charles Bridge. What a spectacular sight
at sunset! It's gorgeous but we're tired of sightseeing for now. We decide we'll
rest and check out the sights later. For now, we'll grab an ice cream cone and
head back to do laundry and watch West Wing and the Sopranos on TV! Welcome back
to civilization if only for a few days. It turns out Des and Bill are headed to
Greece on Wednesday for a well-deserved 2-week vacation. That means we will be
looking for a new place to stay for the rest of our time in Prague.
Monday,
July 30
We do very little sight-seeing today. We walk around the neighborhood
looking for a suitable hostel for the latter part of the week. In the process,
we stumble upon a Czech restaurant away from all the tourists. The waiter is rude
(as is the custom) but serves us a huge, delicious lunch that costs us 9 dollars
total. After lunch, Jenni decides to walk around Prague in order to get oriented
while Joe goes back to the apartment to while away the rest of the day watching
TV. He soaks in a cesspool of CNN, BBC and MTV, re-runs of Seinfeld and whatever
else is on. Des and Bill take us to dinner again at a fashionable vegetarian restaurant
and eat excellent food … once again for very cheap!
Tuesday,
July 31
We sleep late again (did we mention the bed was very comfortable?)
and then meet Des and Bill at the Bohemian Bagel for lunch. The food is good,
but the highlight of the lunch is the fact that this place has free refills of
their drinks - with ice!!! We walk around a little bit and head back to rest.
Bill cooks up a lovely pasta dinner and we spend the evening working on getting
our next Web pages up. We watch more West Wing - the best show on TV - and then
an excellent documentary on World War II. It's about how German women were basically
brainwashed ever since they were little girls into believing Hitler was God and
German men were angels. The documentary showed footage from "Hitler Youth" rallies
that showed little girls crying and screaming and trying to touch Adolf's hand
… as if he were Elvis Presley! It showed love letters the little girls wrote Hitler,
offering to be the mother of his children. It was quite disturbing. The filmmakers
interviewed the women - who are grandmothers today - about their thoughts and
feelings at the time. The women say they really believed all that hero worship
stuff because they were little girls. Sadly, at the end of World War II, the girls
were shocked in many ways to find out what a devil Hitler really was. The allied
soldiers forced entire communities - including the little girls - to visit the
concentration camps to see firsthand the horrors that had happened while they
were participating in those rallies and writing those love letters. To this day,
many of the women say they feel ashamed, but they did not realize what was happening
in their communities. Others say they knew, but just could never believe anything
so horrible! Des and Bill say documentaries about World War II are extremely common
here. We've seen them on TV everywhere we have been too. It seems Europeans are
still wringing their hands about perhaps their most horrific historical memory.
Wednesday,
August 1
We spend the morning visiting the castle and the presidential
palace at the top of the hill. It's odd - you can never get a good sense of the
castle complex because it's too far away from the
Charles Bridge, and when you get close to it, it's surrounded by buildings - so
you never get a good wide-angle view of the thing. We meet Des and Bill for lunch
at Kogo Restaurant where we eat calzones, soup and salad. In the late afternoon,
we pack up and move into a double room at the Strawberry Hostel down the street
for just $24 per night as Des and Bill leave for Greece. The rooms are crammed
with furniture, but we like the extra storage space and breezy windows.
Thursday,
August 2
While leaving our key at the front desk of the hostel - penalty
of 50 korunas if you don't! - and picking up a roll of toilet paper, we meet two
travelers
from Port Aransas, Texas. We walked them to the Charles Bridge and played tour
guide while they waited for their hostel room. They are young - just 17 and 19
years old - and live fearlessly, as Joe puts it. Joe begs off a visit to the Jewish
Quarter to take a nap and Jenni tours it alone. We know this is cheating, but
we decide to have dinner at McDonald's! We never even eat there at home, but we
decide we needed a taste of home. It actually didn't taste that good, but it was
fast and nobody was rude.
Friday,
August 3
We
spend most of the day running errands. We hit a supermarket/department store to
buy several items: a real towel to use in the shower since the hostel does not
supply them (we had only brought along a shammy - the little rag you use to dry
cars), 3 new t-shirts, and some soap and other toiletries. We also spend some
time at Bohemia Bagel on the Internet researching our next two stops. Looks like
we may be heading in another unplanned direction! 
Very
exciting possibilities, but we're not sure yet. We head to a blues club around
11:00PM for some music and a pivo (beer) and run into an American couple from
Minnesota. Jessica and Jason are up for a party so we take a short walk to the
"Largest Music Club in Central Europe" where we dance and drink for hours! We
all take a couple shots of Absinthe - a green liqueur that is 70% alcohol and
simply nasty. Absinthe is illegal in most of the western world -- including the
United States -- because of its legendary qualities, including alleged hallucination.
The Absinthe has not made Jenni's heart grow fonder as she has become a disagreeable
drunk. Although it could have been a good fight, Joe is too distracted by the
beautiful sunrise to argue back. We stumble home, about 5AM and crash.
Saturday,
August 4
A nasty hangover greets us this morning/afternoon. After an hour
of apologies back and forth (isn't making up fun to do?) we make it to Bohemia
Bagel again about 1:30 pm for their bottomless drinks and yummy chicken chili,
but Jenni can't last the afternoon. She goes back to the hostel to sleep a few
hours while Joe captures the city with pictures. An unusual display of mannequins
in a store window catches his attention. 
These
men and women in the windows are alive with "Sale" written across their
bodies, touting a sale today.
We
try to go to the Black Light Theater but miss the show time, so we race to the
Bridge to see the spectacular sunset but miss that show too. We amble back to
the Old Town Square and have some hot chocolate and coffee at a touristy café
on what has become a rather chilly evening.
Sunday,
August 5
That absinthe on Friday really knocked us to our knees…again,
we sleep late and can hardly get moving in the morning. We make our way to the
Old Town Square and eat lunch at - where else? - Bohemian Bagel. LOVE that place!
Called Jenni's parents and took a nap, then met the Minnesotans for a beer/street
vendor hotdog and a few laughs. They have also decided Absinthe is the work of
the devil.