Unsettling sight in Prague

In 2011, I took a trip with my family to Prague and saw this ad in the Metro station. It's sooo unsettling!

Cherub, cut that out!

Several years ago, we took a trip to Prague. We saw a statue with a cherub who looked as if he were teething on someone's foot. I'm curious if there's some significance to that, or if the sculptor just had a warped sense of humor. Maybe the cherub is kissing someone's foot.

Prague Black Light Theater

From March 25, 2010

saw and enjoyed Faust @ the black light theatre: it was like Cats, Avenue Q, Michael Jackson, and classical literature combined. Yeah, it was that weird.

The Statue Park

From Mar 28, 2010

I'm back from a jaunt to Europe. My friend and I accidentally almost became fugitives from Hungarian law, tried our darndest not to laugh at a guy who kept tripping on blocks on the Charles Bridge because he was smoking and not paying attention (we failed miserably at not laughing), walked miles and miles, made a music video about sinkholes in Prague sidewalks, and had a great time.

Before the trip, I had been ruminating over getting to the Communist Statue Park in Budapest. The directions we researched, while technically correct, lacked sufficient detail. They said ride to the end of the line, turn left, and walk through the woods. Um, yeah. Ride the tram to the end of the line, turn left, walk about 2-3 blocks, turn left into the woods, take the middle trail which is probably about 2 miles or so (walk about 30-45 minutes, depending on the length of your travel partner's legs/stride and the degree of your jetlag), chug up the last hill (again, only as difficult as your jetlag is), and turn right toward the giant mushroom, as the pleasant, helpful Hungarians call it. By mushroom, they mean the water tower that looks like a UFO or a mushroom (again, depending on the degree of your jetlag). Turn left onto the road that deadends on the trail and stagger another 1/4 mile to the park. You can see it right after the garden store. You can see the arms of Communists poking above the walls of the garden store. Look around at the statues, make the YMCA sign (backwards) with one of the statues, and stagger back to your hotel.The park isn't wildly entertaining, but you can say that you possess the fortitude to get there.

The Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora is about as fun to get to, but it involves multiple buses and a test of willpower of how badly you want to see it. If you want to test the fortitude of your stomach, try out the "charming" bathrooms at the Kutna Hora bus stop. By the way, the ossuary in Rome trumps that one and is far easier to get to, so if it's a tossup if you'd like to see Czech or Roman bones, I'd say go for the Roman ones. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Prague sidewalks, or: When I go walking, I strut my stuff and I fall in holes

Prague is a beautiful, medieval city, mostly spared of the bombing during World War II. Being as old as it is, it shows some wear though, especially with settling roads and sidewalks. During my first visit to Prague in March 2010, I was surprised at how uneven the sidewalks were. The sidewalks are composed of small pavers/stones in patterns and some patterns bulged oddly from the settling. It was almost like one of those carnival funhouses to watch one walk down the street; the person appears to grow taller and shrink as she hits high and low spots in the sidewalk. The thing is, though, is that it's not so fun to trip in the holes.

Seriously, many of these sinkholes could take a person out. Granted, their sides were often sloped, but they could often still be six inches deep. I was so taken by the sinkholes that I made an impromptu music video (with singing done by moi) on a deserted street at night about the sinkholes. I took the Violent Femmes' Blister in the Sun and just tailored it to the Prague experience: "When I go walking, I strut my stuff, then I fall in holes." It was great stuff, I tell you.

About a year later, I returned to Prague, but this time a little later in the spring. I found the sinkholes less prevelant, making me wonder if the sinkholes were from winter thawing and freezing and municipal workers had repaired them. My travel companions and I actually witnessed the workers repairing the holes. Apparently it was as enthralling for others as it was for us because a crowd of slack-jawed tourists gathered around the workers, snapping pictures and chattering in various languages. I don't think that the workers were amused by their new-found celebrity but I have to say that I was very grateful to them because they helped me to avoid a twisted ankle.

Karma police, arrest this man...

...or at least, tell him to quit smoking and walking! As K and I were strolling down the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) one lovely night in March and observed a gentleman smoking a cigarette, gesticulating wildly, and intently conversing with him partner. Of all of these activities, however, none of them included paying attention to where he was walking. Part of the bridge was under construction so a construction fence, with feet that stuck out, lined part of the bridge. Do you see where this is going? Mr. Smokesalot tripped over the fence feet. K and I tried to hide our giggles but after the second time of him tripping we clamped our hands over our mouths and just about lost it.

Since I'm clumsy, I warned K that karma was going to bit me in the butt for laughing at him for tripping. With Prague's incredibly uneven sidewalks (that's yet another entry), it was only a matter of time until I was paid back.

Pictionary

When K and I were in Prague, we decided to venture forth to Kutná Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary. It was quite the trip, involving several bus legs and a couple hours of travel. As we made our way, we saw some Japanese tourists who seemed to have a great idea, probably born of necessity on their part. When they were trying to find the correct bus, one tourist would point questioningly to a picture of the destination (in this case, the bone church). The driver seemed to get the point: the girls wanted to get to that destination and would answer in the negative or affirmative if he was going there. Since they had to rely on their second (or third!) language and the bus driver did, too, the picture was a good shortcut and offered very little in the way of misunderstanding.

K and I decided that such a method would work great in the future, especially if we travel to locales with little English.

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As an aside, I thought that one of the girl's accent was really interesting (it must be the Sociolinguist in me). When she spoke English, you could tell obviously that she had a Japanese accent, but it was also blended with a British and American sound, too. I bet she had classes with both Brits and Americans. It was an interesting combination.