My umbrella and recently purchased rain jacket have worked overtime on this trip. In fact, I think the last day I can recall with zero precipitation was a week ago Monday. I can say a lot of things about this day, yet most importantly, it didn’t rain. For one whole day!
Charlie & I got a bit of a late start this morning (as we stayed up late & Charlie didn’t sleep very well on the roll-away bed). We wandered back to Wenceslas Square & sat outside for a nice lunch. We sat next to a group of 8 Irish soccer fans…a couple of them were getting serious abuse regarding the state of their hangover. The waiter was a funny guy; he pulled the old “pretend to spill the cup of coffee” trick (with an empty cup). Nice entertainment for our meal.
Following our lunch, we headed to Prague’s Old Town. We started with the Old Town Square and timed our visit (accidentally) to coincide with the top of every hour ritual with their astronomical clock (involving the angel of death & the 12 apostle). It was a bit strange, but certainly entertaining. Prague’s Old Town is very picturesque and we walked around through various neighborhoods. We had planned to tour some of the Jewish sites, but the line to get into the Jewish Cemetery was rather long, so we decided to delay that until tomorrow.
We decided to visit the Klementinum (the National Library). It’s a tour with a seemingly odd combination of things: a very old library, the astronomical tower, and a tower with a splendid view of Prague. We ascended the steps (some in a very tight spiral staircase, others were some very steep and narrow wooden steps and took a whole lot of photos. It was an interesting tour and the library was on par with the national library in Vienna, complete with frescos on the ceiling and a whole lot of old books.
At this point, Charlie’s feet went from difficult to critical. He got a nasty blister on one toe a few days ago. It appeared to start healing (in the form of a callous). Yet today, the blister managed to grow, seemingly to the size of small US state. So we headed back to the hotel. This made me happy, as I was craving a good nap. While I stopped off at a store, I saw a group of Hare Krishnas dancing down the street. Funny…I don’t remember the Hare Krishna in Berkeley having a leader using a microphone headset (ala Madonna).
After napping, Charlie and I discussed the possibilities about going out for dinner. Ultimately, Charlie decided to stay home & rest his feet. I planned to head out for some food & to do some wireless internet (as I really needed to post some of my blogs), then bring Charlie back some grub.
I had spotted a café with wireless internet during our walk last night. I headed there, only to find it was overrun with Prague locals and some pretty nasty sounding industrial/metal music. It just didn’t seem all that inviting. So I trudged on.
Surprisingly, the best place to find wireless internet was…KFC! I went in & for the price of an order of French fries, had 90 minutes of good WiFi. At about 10:15, I packed up to head for a Greek restaurant (to get stuff for Charlie), figuring it would take about 15 minutes to get there (and they closed at 11).
I managed to make several wrong turns. I’m not quite sure how this happened, except that I think my first wrong turn really screwed things up. I spent the next 45 minutes wandering aimlessly (thinking I was purposeful) through the Old Town. I felt a bit like the person wandering through a haunted castle that keeps falling through the trap door slides and ending up further away than before. This is really out of character for me, as I usually have an excellent sense of direction. After walking probably every street in the Old Town (perhaps twice), I finally found the Four Seasons Hotel & got directions back towards my goal. I had to get Charlie something else (as the restaurant was closed), but was glad to finally make it back to the apartments (around 11:30).
Despite the ego leveling of this journey, did I mention that I didn’t have to break out my raincoat or umbrella for an entire day? Woo hoo!
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