The Futility of Laundry, Life in a Co-Ed Hostel, Thoughts on being a Genius, and Why is the Tea Always Luke-warm?

In part because I actually feel awake now, in part because I feel guilty about the undifferentiated picture-dump in my post last night, and in part because Gill didn't get any sleep last night and is now napping, I decided to write some more this morning.  Luckily for you, the night of uninterrupted wine-induced slumber means that I have very little memory of last night, but comparatively vivid pictures of the day.

Yesterday, I awoke as one of our room-mates was coming home.  At ten in the morning.  I don't know the full story, nor did I care to ask, but I think our other roommates are more interested in meeting and screwing as many Czech girls as possible than in actually seeing some of this amazingly beautiful and historic European capital.  To each his own, I suppose.  He asked us if we just came back and slept, and when we responded in the affirmative, he quipped "You're only as young as you are once."  Yes, tautology is correct.  Premise true.  Next premise?  "Maybe when I come back here when I'm forty with a wife, I'll go see a museum."  Okay.  Well, if you pickle your liver with absinthe every night, there's no guarantee you'll make it to forty.  Also, wife?  Your lifestyle at the moment would lead any objective observer to believe that you don't have enough respect for women to tie your life to any of them.  I bet he doesn't even have a girlfriend, and if he does, I feel very bad for her.  Commitment, just like excess, is a habit.  None of this was said, though the uncomfortable silence that followed his remarks spoke volumes.  Either way, invalid argument. 

Gill and I readied for the day.  Breakfast is served until ten in the hostel, so we'd missed that, but as we made our way along Prague's streets, I popped into a bakery to buy something to eat.  Gill had already nibbled on some stroop waffels from Amsterdam and an orange or two, so she didn't want anything.  I ended up with a sweet pastry with Nutella filling and powdered sugar on the top.  Exactly what I needed, in my opinion.  As we walked through Prague and I ate, I felt a deep contentment in spite of the glaring sun and stale-smelling city.  I don't understand Czech at all.  From what I gather, it's close to Polish, which means it's similar to Ukrainian, which means that if I speak in Russian to everyone, they understand me minimally through my thick and funny accent.

The city decays in pieces, to fertilize the growth of the whole

There's graffiti everywhere, along with carved relief figures on most of the older buildings

I'm fairly certain that this sign says "Cheese."  :-)

The maid just came in to clean up after two of the frat boy-like suitemates of ours.  She asked me a question in Czech, I responded in Russian, and she switched to Russian with me.  I translated for her and one of the guys.  They were supposed to leave yesterday, but stayed and extra night for no conceivable reason beyond the fact that one of them didn't sleep, and the other slept past checkout.  I'm so glad she speaks Russian!  She probably thinks less of me now, since the language is associated with The Commie Bastards, but at least I can communicate, unlike the American Imperialist Bastards.  As she's cleaning their beds and fixing the sheets, she finds an empty bottle of vodka underneath one of them, looks twice to make sure it's empty, and puts it on the table next to the guy that's still here.  His friend went to Western Union to withdraw money to pay for the hostel, but he's still here talking to the guy from Montreal, telling stories about how they were almost arrested last night because he was on the Metro without a ticket.  Apparently, the police here take their jobs very seriously.

 We took pictures of a bridge that we thought was the Charles Bridge, but turned out to actually be the Most Legii, which crosses over the Strelecky Ostrov, a pretty island in the middle of the Vltava River.  Gill's stomach was hurting as we walked, so we found a Cafe and sat down to some overpriced cappuccino and hot chocolate.

A view of the river Vltava

I just thought this was funny.  No idea why.

Jiruskuv Bridge

Reclining carved figures on an apartment building

A pretty picture, informing us that we are in the center of Prague, and maybe a zoo is in the vicinity?

What I love best about Prague; urban city with untouched wilderness reining it in

Most Legii

Gill sipping chocolate, with the famous ceiling of the Cafe Savoy in the background

A subtle, tasteful building ;-D

We found a map and made our way to Petron Hill, which is a very famous symbol of Prague.  We found a tram station directly in front of it, and made a note of which tram went back to near our hostel, since the walk thus far had taken about two hours or so.  Prague isn't very large, but it has a lot of hills, and the distances are deceptively short.  They seem as though they'll take twenty minutes at most to scale, but in reality, they are grueling pathways.  Not really grueling, actually, but they certainly stretch for inordinate periods of time.

On Petron Hill, we found some sculptures, and took quite a few pictures.  The path took us about an hour to climb fully, and the hill was beautiful.  From near the summit, we saw a clear and unbroken view of Prague spread out before us, and everything looked as though it were made in miniature.  A tiny little city constructed solely for the delight of a capricious child.  

A sculpture commemorating all those who were affected by Communism.

In front of the tram to the top.  We walked.

I like this guy

The large wall surrounding the top of the hill

View from the top, sunbathing :-)

They had a lot of these portraits of the stages of the cross

A poem in Czech, which I am incapable of translating

I made friends.

From Petron Hill, we walked downward toward the city.  We found many of the embassies in Prague, and a little cafe nestled in a nook between embassies and the rest of the city.  We sat down to drink homemade iced tea, and ginger ale, and I bought a ridiculously-cheap pack of cigarettes.  65 Czech Korona, which is the equivalent of about 2 Euro.  The cafe played great music from the seventies, eighties, and nineties, and in the corner, there was a bright red Dutch bicycle like a good luck charm.  The waitress's English was very good, so we could speak with her easily.  The bathroom had Japanese sliding doors and was very clean, not to mention free.  So many of the bathrooms here are paid that it's silly.  It also puts a lot of pressure on you, since you don't know when you'll find the next one.  Eventually, we got up, and went further down the street.  

Gill in front of Ze German embassy.  Count the patterns in this picture!

We bought noodles and sauce for dinner, and some dates, apples, oranges, and wine for dessert.  It's much cheaper to eat in, after all.  Further down, we found a Magic Store, and went in.  It was mostly Wiccan stuff, and had some of the usual brightly-colored candles, wooden runes, and cheap figurines of dragons and fairies made out of unspecified metals.  We picked up tea for ourselves.  It's called Genius Tea, and tastes mostly of sage.  It's meant to stimulate blood flow to the brain, which is euphemistic for "crack you out hardcore."  I definitely don't feel any more genial, but the tea would argue otherwise, so who am I to say any differently?

From there, we found a church whose order of monks and nuns devote themselves to a waxen infant Jesus figure.  They have dozens of little robes for him, and change him eight times  per year.  This struck both Gill and myself as slightly creepy, but you're not going to say that to the nun who's telling you all of this with a religious glint in the corners of her eyes.  Later, we discussed the pros and cons of putting the doll in direct sunlight.  

The figurine was given to the Czechs by the Spanish in 1628 to celebrate the noble marriage of some princess to a prince.  The order of monks who dress the doll was abolished in 1760, and re-instated in 1994.  It's strange to me that there was a group of people dressing a wax doll before America was a country.  That's the weirdest thing about traveling Europe; when you put things in perspective, you realize that the founding fathers' fathers' eyes were gleam-less at the time that these events were taking place.  There were buildings on Petron Hill before America was discovered.  And I walked there yesterday.  (Sidenote: the baby Jesus doll doesn't have any Holy Junk.  We saw a video of the nuns dressing him, and he's carved with robes already on.)

From there, we went onto the tram, and found our way back to the hostel with our food in tow.  Apparently, the place to buy fresh fruit and veg is the train station, since there's a kiosk every foot or so over there.  We came back to the rooms, gave our laundry to the woman downstairs, and went back to our room for relaxing and possible re-arrangement of our itinerary.  We changed a few things around, and it was time for dinner, which we made and consumed.  I had the entire bottle of wine to myself, which explains the uninterrupted sleep and possibly excuses the blog post from last night.  I slept ridiculously well after picking up my pajamas from the laundry room, and awoke today to a bright morning.  

The unfortunate thing about living with all guys is that they never, EVER, put the toilet seat down.  This is a universal of men everywhere, and as annoying here as it ever is.  I hate it so much.  Also, I realized as I was re-packing my backpack for our leaving tomorrow that I will always have at least ONE dirty outfit if I do laundry.  It struck me as particularly hopeless, since I hate carrying around clothes that I can't wear.  Since they're dirty.  Since traveling makes you smelly, regardless of your bathing habits.  I need to boil some more water now, and leave to see the city again.  Hopefully, I've redeemed myself to all my faithful readers by now.  Love you all!