Praha II: Street Wandering

So, after I had settled into my room, which basically involved taking everything except the guidebooks out of my backpack, I wandered off to do things around Praha. My first stop was at a hair salon down the street where I was able to use my freshly learned knowledge of how to tell time in German to make an appointment for the next morning.

From there, I basically wandered to Staré Město, where I first watched the famous Astronomical clock work its magic before finding lunch. From lunch I walked through Josefov, the Jewish Quarter and found myself at the Decorative Arts Museum (Umĕlecko-Průmyslov Muzeum). Funny enough, it wasn’t in the building where I thought it was supposed to be-which means that last year when I skipped it because there was a movie being shot on its doorstep, I had made a minor mistake. I was rewarded with an exhibit on Scandinavian design, which was, to be honest, fabulous.

After looking at the special exhibit and the standing displays, I found myself heading toward one of Prague’s more visible symbols, Karlův Most – The Charles Bridge. It was somewhat disturbing to know, as I commended crossing the Vltava River, that some 750 meters distant, I would have a choice of McDonalds or Subway. The bridge was crowded and I looked a number of stalls selling various Prague mementos without actually buying anything: rather I made a specific point of stopping at St. John of Nepomuk’s statue and rubbing the plaques. According to the rumor mill, doing so means that you will one day return to Prague, and my personal experience has shown it to work-I rubbed the plaques a year and a half ago.

By now, it was mid-evening and I headed back to the hotel where I checked email, drank a beer, and then hopped into a small grocery store across the street. For less than 2€, I obtained a 2 liter bottle of water, a bag of chips, and a package of cookies.

One thing that is certainly inexpensive in Prague is food.

Thursday evening was a bust. I’m not sure if it was my fault for going out too early, I picked the wrong places, or Thursday is just plain dead in Prague, but I ended up returning to my hotel in advance of midnight, where I crashed.