These blogs are more work than I originally anticipated. I revise these things almost more than I just write them. Not to mention they always seem to get done about two days after they actually happen, but without an internet connection, I suppose that can’t be entirely helped.

I’m also noticing time seems to be rather peculiar whilst being here. It seems like we have a million years left to be here, yet it seems like there would be no way for a week to have already passed. Because of how many days filled to the brim with doing stuff, if we take a day to just do some work around the house, it feels as if it never happened. I’m still getting used to being here, so I’m not totally sure how it all fits together yet.

I’m also finding that attempting to recall things that have happened is getting a little blurred, partly for the aforementioned effect of some events blending into the events of another day, as well having multiple days back-to-back full of events, leaving me little time to sit down at night and write it. I sincerely apologize for this, and I will do my best to put things into order.

Monday, May 23

Jeff and I visited Vyšehrad, one of the two oldest castles in the Czech Republic, originally settled in the 10th century. It’s not like castles as one normally thinks of, with a massive keep, moat, and towering spires, but it’s more like a very large, fortified compound. There are massive walls, by golly there are, but the only towering spires to be found are from the main cathedral on the grounds. It’s twin peaks are of highly ornate stonework, weathered, yet still inspiring in their complexity. They loom over an ancient graveyard, which is a bit of an curiosity in itself. It is curious due to the plotting for the sites are not uniformly spread, so there can be small, worn paths leading haphazardly between the headstones and family plots. Some graves are completely engulfed beneath serpentine ivy, while others have nary a speck of dust on them, their engraved plaques of the deceased polished to a mirror sheen.

Apparently some very famous people have been interred there, but as I know nothing of Czech celebrities nor Czech historical figures, the names meant nothing to me.

An unfortunate note is that the cathedral seems to be closed on Mondays, so Jeff and I were sadly denied seeing the interior, but as it seems the castle is about a ten minute’s walk from our construction site (strike) house, we will be returning there in the near future.

We patrolled around the walls of the castle until the call of food prompted us to head home, and it really wasn’t quite as awe-inspiring as the castle was. I think it was Carl Pilkerton that said something along the lines of “I’d rather live in a s**t-hole and stare at a palace, than live in a palace and stare at a s**t-hole.” Pardon the obscenities, it’s just a fitting saying.

We re-embarked on our day’s travels a little while later, heading to Oldtown Square and we saw the Astronomical Clock, which is one of three astronomical clocks left in Europe, and apparently the only functioning one left. Neat. This square is a very, very tourist-heavy area, drawing crowds in the hundreds to thousands, and the souvenir shops every ten feet heavily reflect this. (A small personal note, we did finally find a couple places that sell military surplus stuff. If anyone out there doesn’t know me very well, I have an interest in that sort of thing, and try to collect what I can when it is presented to me. My issue is that the vendors seem to be selling the stuff at tourist-trap prices, so I’m going to look into whether or not there is somewhere less touristy we can find anything like it. I just don’t know how many people but tourists buy militaria out here, so I may just have to pay a little more if I want anything. Which I do.)

We walked to another plaza called “Malostranské náměstí”, which connects to the Charles Bridge. The bridge’s construction began in 1357, and was completed in the early 15th Century, and is flanked by 15 pairs of statues every 100 feet or so. The bridge is treated like like a bazaar of sorts, with a plethora of booths selling the same useless tat and awful caricatures as everywhere else in the city. Only here, you don’t have the choice of avoiding their wares. The crowds of photographers, both professional and amateur alike, dot the bridge like liver spots on old King Charles himself, and tourists act like faulty bumper cars, cruising through the crowd, jostling anyone nearby until some electrical short happens in their brain and they stop dead in their tracks. I hope I’m not that bad.

After the bridge, Jeff and I decided to attempt to find the Lennon Wall, which as the name suggests, is a wall dedicated to John Lennon. It’s a 40-50 foot wall down a quiet street, covered tip to tail with years upon years of graffiti. The messages given by the countless visitors were usually supportive to the memory of Lennon, others just self-obsessed tagging or meaningless scribble, while some made attempts to be profound or hopelessly romantic to eyes that may never actually see the message. I fell more in the meaningless scribble category, I think. A couple people borrowed my marker to add their own messages to the wall, including two little girls (whose parents told us that one of the daughters had no idea who the Beatles were at all). I expected to get my marker back completely wrecked from the little girls mashing the felt tip across rough cement, but I was pleasantly surprised to get it back relatively unscathed. As we left the Lennon Wall, Jeff suggested trying to get to Castle Prague, and I was too happy to oblige his idea.

Castle Prague, has been by far, the most amazing thing I’ve seen here. It’s a bit of a walk to climb up the sloping path to reach the castle, but the climb allows for a sprawling view of Prague and its peculiar abundance of red-tiled roofs. The main cathedral stopped me in my tracks (I suppose much like my previously-bemoaned tourist encounter), and just sat on the ground, mouth agape in sheer awe. There are few things I have seen that have just floored me like that, and I would be hard-pressed to be able to think of one quite like this at the moment. Just, wow. Any hackneyed words or phrases I could be buggered to think of wouldn’t do this building justice, so I shan’t bother, and let the pictures speak for themselves. Unfortunately my camera felt less impressed than I was, and decided to die on me shortly after getting to the cathedral. Much like the cathedral at Vyšehrad, it was closed, but Jeff and I intend to return to Castle Prague in the near future, and I’ll be able to get more photos and attempts at explanations.

It was beginning to get late, so we decided to head home, until Jeff remembered some restaurant he had gone to last year that had beer brewed by monks. Okay, why not? “Klášterní pivovar Strahov,” it’s called, and a neat little place I wasn’t exceptionally blown away by. It was neat, and that’s about it. Service left much to be desired, prices were high, but at least I finally got a glass of dark beer. “Sv. Norbert Special dark, unfiltered,” it was called, and it was definitely an improvement upon the over-abundance of light beers I’ve had to deal with until then. It was a good night. My feet hurt quite a bit from walking so much around the city, but I have no real complaints.

Next time: Cliffhangers! Sequels! A lack of foresight to what my next entry is!