I blog in Prague.

I have been in Praha for one week. After a few travel bumps, delayed internet setup, various "orientations" (I am still not really very well-oriented), and the discovery that I can still upload pictures to my computer without the proper cord (yay, memory cards!), I can blog in Prague (rhyme!) for the first time.

Warning: it will be rather unfocused, as I am rather unfocused. Right now I cannot help but be stuck in the tourist stage, snapping pictures of everything that I think is pretty (which is, virtually, everything, at least in Old Town rnd around the Castle) without having a speck of knowledge. So for now, I suppose all I can offer is a few pretty pictures (though I am no competition for the photography students here).

My first night in the cab from the airport I spotted the Dancing Building, and though I (along with many Praguers, I think) don't find it appropriate for its location, really, it was nice to see a little bit of Frank Ghery. The building isn't credited solely to him (I forget the other guy) but it is still very distinctly Gehry, and made me feel that maybe I wasn't too far from home/school (thinking on his MIT building--I wonder how the Dancing Building fares in Prague's weather?) after all. (Ha!) Modeled after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

It's pretty cool, but it's not the architecture you come to Prague for. What kind of architecture do you come to Prague for? The old kind. My second day here I got to Old Town Square, which is composed of old architecture. (Duh.) Huge tourist attraction: the astronomical clock. As the hour approaches, tons of tourists (including me probably about four times already) gather to see the windows in the tower open while wooden figures of the Twelve Disciples (Apostles? Same thing, yes?) rotate on by. See right for detail. It doesn't include the disciples, but is a better shot than any that do.

During our scavenger hunt orientation (which lasted for six hours -- jeez Louise) as well as our Prague tour today we, of course, visited the Prague Castle, across the Charles Bridge. Rather than one huge structure, it's actually more like two towns surrounded by fortification--Lower or Lesser Town, and Castle Town, I think? Not only is the Castle across the River Vltava, but it is also up a hill. Quite the hike, but well worth it for the views of the city as well as being walled in with so much history. It's hard to really appreciate it in a group. I cannot wait for (at least slightly) warmer weather to venture back on up and try to soak it all in a little better.

Here: my view from the Old Church in the Castle's Lower Town. In the foreground is the Black Plague Column, with the great Gothic cathedral peeking and peaking dark in the background.

I guess enough guide book business for now. Apologies for the dry text. (I haven't gotten very grounded or involved in the city just yet.) Hopefully the pictures help it out a bit...? I should probably settle into bed soon--rest well for my last day of intensive Czech. (Only moderate Czech after tomorrow, I suppose. Which will still be uberdifficult. Alas.)

And so I leave you with the images of the unpleasant--a fantastic gargoyle/drainage pipe from the Gothic cathedral--to punctuate all of the pleasant above. (Hopefully the two will cancel each other out. Or maybe the pleasant will even prevail.)

Dobrou noc!

Trapped!

My trip has not been off to the smoothest of starts, as a two-hour delay in Boston caused me to miss the only morning flight from London to Prague (8:00 a.m.). Now I must wait for the next one, which is at 2:3o p.m. LE SIGH.

Oh well. I think I have made it over the hill from cranky (having been up since 8:30 yesterday morning? Or something? I have no grasp on the time...) to content even though I have hours to kill yet. (To be honests, internet connection is a big comfort, whichI hate, but it was necessary to let my program and parents know what's up.) Thank God I am in London (the English language is also, obviously, a big comfort... I have the feeling it will become even more so in several hours...).

This is really just a boring blog, born out of boredom (I have paid internet time to kill here...), so, apologies for the waste of internet and lack of visuals (blog - visuals = very unengaging, at least in my book). And so, farewell for now!

"tea and bravery"

One more literary note (for now)...

The whole "tea and bravery" deal comes from another work, another author, probably my (current) favorite alongside Nabokov.

From The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, "Dress up warm, lots of tea and bravery. That seemed the answer. After all, what but war or weather breeds such comradeliness in a big, cold city?"

I have the tea part down, of course. I have at least half a suitcase full with sweaters. And the big, cold city is waiting for me. So now the bravery should just fall into place.

The Familiar Vineyard

The Hart yard actually does grow vines -- and grape vines, at that! However, I do not have a photograph of them. Instead, the Hart house. Just as good. Actually, better.

The vineyard quotation comes from Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire. Appropriate not only for travel, but for my travels: my apartment in Praha 2 is in the neighborhood Vinohrady, where King Charles IV planted vineyards in the 14th century. Pretty neat.

The day after tomorrow it is. I'll go from rural to urban, a population of 1,500 to a population of 1.2 million, English to Czech, seacoast to landlock (weird), etc., etc., etc. At least the climate and the racial/cultural homogeneity will be the same. (Comforting.)*

OKAY. This traveling girl should stop typing and start packing. After all, I've got to double-Czech (ha! FORGIVE ME. The first AND the last Czech pun I'll make... unless I find a wonderfully tacky t-shirt or something. Then I guess I'll wear the pun, not make it...?) that I have all I'll need to explore (and hopefully embrace) my mysterious Czech/Slovak heritage.

Two days and it will be a scary 'goodbye' to my familiar vineyard and in three (sort of) an exciting 'dobrý den' to my new one. Let us hope that the wine there will be just as sweet!

*Sarcasm.