Back from Prague this evening. Indeed, it is beautiful. Much more than Budapest in terms of aesthetic value, but I still enjoy Budapest better just because not everyone is a tourist here. Prague was a mob of tourist, I bet more than half of the people there were tourists. Cameras flashed everywhere, crowds and crowds of people were on the Charles Bridge, the Old Town Sqaure, anywhere and everywhere of historical or cultural worth. Prices were mad simply because it was a touristy place. Let's see.

Kim was so cute...she got me a disposable camera 'for my birthday' caus I forgot to bring my own camera (what kinda tourist am I!!!), so I could take pics. I was very happy. We arrived at Arpacay Hostels somewhere between nine to eleven p.m. on Thursday night, and drifted off to the bar nearby after settling in. The Hostel had two main buildings (or rather, floors), one on each side of the street. Jill, Kim and I took the room across the street from everyone else, together with the Sterks' and the driver in different rooms. The place was definately not what their website had advertised, pretty close, but not the same. Prof Sterk came along with us to the bar. Czech beer is suppose to be a-must-try, supposely the best around. There really wasn't much else to do, but hang around. They had a jukebox, so it was fun getting to listen to the 80s and 90s radio music. The kind of Western music in parts of Eastern Europe (where I have been to so far anyhow) is basically one step behind today's music in the US. Got to play pool, even though I made a fool of myself; Paul, being a really good player, was gracious enough to 'lie' about my pool skills :S But I was bored and as comfortable as the couch was there, I left early and went back to the hostel to sleep. The next day we went to the Jewish sector and the Old Main Square. It was $8 to get into six of the Jewish attractions, synagogues, cemetary, museum. The Nazis had collected stuff about the Jewish culture to make a museum for the "extinct race" here. Grotesque but there's the irony of having the Jews making a profit from this museum today. The cemetary was rather interesting...I kinda liked it from all the graveyards I have seen my lifetime--it was very simple, just non-frilly tombstones and grass. The tombstones were rather packed and not in any particular order because, after all, there were 12 layers of bodies there! There were little pieces of paper and pebbles on some of the tombstones, those near enough where people could reach out and put stuff on it. I wonder what this custom is...I remember the people in Spielberg's Schindler's List doing the same in the commentary after the film. I think other religions do this as well, but cannot say for sure. I decided to write a note of my own, so Jill, Joel and I did so, something along the lines of the Sovereignty of God and being in/having life after death. I hope this is not scarilege or something. We placed the folded note on one of the more lonely looking tombstones. We also learnt about the rituals in Judaism, the birth, death, marriage, growing up, etc. I learnt of the Burial Society, which arranges burials, that the 12 tribes of Israel had animal symbols representing each tribe, saw the drawings of Jewish children that had lived under Nazi rule, read about the legend of Golem, the earth servant of a rabbi, saw a Spanish synagogue and the many artifacts. We wondered the significance of the Star of David but found none that could explain it to us.

The Old Main Square was superb...fairly narrow cobblestone passageways lead up to the main square. The first glimpe I got of it was the huge copper (it was green) Jan Hus Monument. And it was looming. We hung around the square til the whole group found each other and watched a group of street performers do their thing...there was such a cute little girl dancing away, so I just had to snap a pic of her. Jeff and I broke away from the group by accident. We wandered around, found Bric n' Brac store and Jeff had a blast there. We found old typewriters, one that printed Braille, old pictures and certificates, original records of Lenin's speeches, old cameras (which really made Jeff happy), old maps of Eastern Europe (he was also very happy to find one of Hungary's railroads before Hungary's empire broke up after WWII), and other old nic nacks. I got a photograph (1937-38) taken in the main square, so I could use it as a comparison to the picture I took at the same angle. The place looked virtually the same. The shopkeeper, Martin was very glad to show us his treasures and talk about them...it was really interesting to hear of the history of individual objects. He was quite nonchalent about some stuff...he got real excited and chattered about this binocular-looking, film-showing picture (i forget the name of it, but it was like those toy stuff, 'cept this one was used before film development, we play we when young), dug thru a shelve to find ' a Nazi spoon, and oh, a fork as well, that was somewhere behind everything else.' It was great to see someone enjoy his his work...Jeff and him bonded over some photographs as well. After that, it was more wandering. We got lost quite a few times. I was hoping to meet up with some of the others to find out what's going on next, but did not. We got lost again while trying to get back to the bus drop off point. We kinda forgot where the place was. After much walking around, I realized I had a map to the hostel, but not in between the area where we were at and the hostel...but we found our way back. We were both out of it by the time we reached the hostel at midnight, and then I realized I didn't have the key (there was only one) and the reception was no only open. Jeff could get in either, so we stumbled to the bar, it was lightly raining by now. And I was never more happy to see my Prague roommates sitting there...I got the key and was out.

The next day was the Castle area. Oh, this is hilarious and also malu sampai tak tahu nak letak muka mana. Laura had heard of people that had gone before our year that kissed the guards standing at attention at the castle enterances. So, Laura and Erica decided to get a picture of them doing so...they stood at either side of one of the guards and bent over to kiss him at the last minute. The guard was not too pleased...he stumbled backwards a little, gave some kinda shout and looked real bewildered, worried, mad. Me, Jill, Joel, Eric and Kim took off again and saw the changing of the guards, which happened every hour. It was mad, there were people everywhere, it was a mob. If don't quite know if the guards had entered into the military with being a tourist-attraction in mind. Yes, I did the traditional and took a pic with the guard. We saw the Vitus' Cathedral and Helmut Newton's work in the photo gallery. I was very disturbed with the Helmut's photos, but focused on trying to figure out what the feminism aspect he was trying to convey. The whole of Eastern Europe is very disturbing to me with their way too liberal take on mass media.
We went to Sate for lunch..I was very excited because the guide book said it was Malaysian and Indonesian food...it was Indonesian-owned, Indonesian food. We passed by the Column of the Plague, erected in thanksgiving after the Black Plague, as with Budapest in the Casa district. That was very interesting to me. Dinner was on Calvin and it was really great, Italian food. I called Jeff a dork and Prof Sterk overheard, my bad. But all's well. Everyone but Katie (who unfortunately had a sprained ankle), Prof Sterk, Jeff and myself did not go clubbing that night. Prague was famous for their 6-floor dance club, the Music Club, and I was curious to see what it looked like, but was too tired and headachey from the day's sight-seeing. So I went back, and was asleep as soon as I got into bed. I suppose I shoulda been more social and hung out with those that did not go clubbing, but they were in the bar and I did not want to smell of smoke the next day--back to Budapest day. ]

So that's Prague. Charles Bridge really caught me. I think I have indeed found a place I really like, or rather the kind of place--a city with a decent sized river running thru it. It is magically beautiful.