So I settled into Prague for 6 days... which is a long time in the scheme of my trip, especially since I didn't really know anything ABOUT the place other than the vague feeling that I would like it, and a few friends telling me how beautiful it was. So armed with that vague idea, a really HORRIBLE grasp of the Czech language (and I thought GERMAN was hard!), and a couple thousand Kronas (man I really love really high currencies... I feel like such a high-roller every time I buy a candybar.) I headed to the Czech Republic.
It's kind of weird to say that it wasn't what I was expecting since I just got through saying that I didn't really have any expectations... but well, it really wasn't what I was expecting.
The city was really lovely, in a completely dainty, boroque, frilly sort of way, with buildings which looked like piles of marble whipped cream. But the people of this frilly, almost fussy city felt completely out of whack with it. This people reminded me of the ships you see in harbors at the end of summer... worn and sundrenched from the storms they have weathered, but still treading water with grace and pride. The two didn't match. I could love them both, seperately, but I had a really hard time putting the two together.
Another city which I can't claim as my own, but I truly loved observing. Lately I've felt less like a traveller than a peeping tom, eavesdropping on bits of languages I don't understand and peering in on cultures which are equally foreign to me. I haven't felt lately that tug of recognition, that silent and knowing realization that I've just stumbled into a place which has had a peice of my heart all along, and I just didn't know it yet. But I feel like instead I've been learning how to genuinely respect and love such different ways of seeing the world, in a way I don't think I ever have before. Which is kind of just as cool, I think.
2 comments:
Loved your description of the city. Even though this isn't 'your' city,at least you took the time to take it's pulse. Who knows, maybe in another season it will make your top 20 list.
The food looked good... but hey, three glasses of beer? Was it a "tasting" what's up with that?! ha!
I was with the two in the previous picture. :)
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