Day Thirteen: More Fairytale, Less Puke
July 7, 2008
After one of those wake-up-every-few-hours-and-ask-yourself “am I going to puke now” nights, I’m happy to report that I awoke feeling substantially better. Not totally restored mind you, but I wasn’t running down any alleyways looking for a trash can if you know what I mean.
This of course is good because we had a lot of events lined up for our full day in Prague. When we first arrived we were told about a tour company that did a full day 6ish hour-long walk-boat-tram Prague tour. And, while a bit pricey, it included lunch and drinks. And, since Leslie and I were growing a bit weary of getting massively lost every.single.day we thought, why not! Tis our last full day, why not be spoon fed a little gosh darnit!
So the vast majority of today was consumed by this nice long tour. Of course, I thought there’d be a lot more walking in the walking tour but, alas, there was not. We went all over but we walked very very slowly – with lots of breaks for talking and whatnot along the way. But, looking back, I think this was better for me – I was still feeling pretty ill and while in my head I wanted to run around like we always do, my body was not so much in agreement.
So what did we see? Well let me tell you! First we started with a nice history lesson on Communism in Czech and in Prague in particular. Since all of this happened not so long ago (the Velvet Revolution ended in 1989), our guide actually witnessed some of the landmark events. Isn’t that neat?!
After our lesson we walked over and…
- walked through the Jewish ghetto and saw the oldest in-use synagogue in the world
- Took a boat up and down the Vltava river, going under the lovely Charles bridge (the tour was lovely and Leslie was in high spirits but I, well I still felt the way I look in the picture to the right)
- 
Ate lunch at a yummy place where I had some most delicious sauerkraut (Leslie had yummy goulash) and made friends with two guys from Norway!
- Walked over the Charles bridge and took public transportation (successfully) up to Prague castle
- Were told some more interesting stories about Prague castle and the stained glass windows. (Did you know that each window was sponsored by either an individual or company and so, in return, there’s basically an ad on each window – like for instance, in one of the more subtle examples, a pretzel making company sponsored a window so one of the guys looking up at the religious scene has a friggin pretzel in his hand!!!)
- got a most gorgeous view over the city (at which point Leslie and I thought it high time for a video!)
After the tour concluded at Prague Castle and Leslie and I had taken our video, we proceeded to walk back to our hostel. Sadly, some combination of Leslie and I lost the map during lunch and so… unsurprisingly… we got lost. I must give Leslie some massive credit, though – while it’s true we were lost, Leslie was very very close to getting us back to the hostel. And, since I was totally out of it the last time we walked to the hostel (reminder: I was puking), I was of absolutely no help.
Once we found our way we quickly got a new map and figured out where to go to pick up our tickets for the Black Light Theater! Yay!!! This was the one show we booked ahead of time. I was super duper interested in trying out this Black Light business and, since I was quasi-responsible for Eastern Europe, I decided to get us some tickets (since I had no idea if these things sold out or not). Oh and the show I got us tickets for is called “Aspects of Alice”. You can see their website here.
I’m happy to report we made it to the ticketing office literally one minute before they closed. I don’t know why the gods like to play with us so, but as long as in the end they let us survive, I guess I’m ok with it…
After we got our tickets we decided to eat dinner. This is exciting news because it means that I was actually hungry. And, after a day of not wanting to even look at food, I took hunger as a sign of recovery.
And oh what a recovery we had! We stumbled upon a pub-like place called Pilsner Urquell that seemed to have good prices (and let me tell you, do NOT listen to what all these crazy people tell you – Prague was, without question, the most expensive place for food! Even more expensive than Italy!!!) So, it looked to have reasonable prices… but of course, we couldn’t actually read the menu (and there was no English translation) so we were going on a bit of faith.
While we were looking at the menu (and I think I must have been trying to decipher some of the words aloud) a couple came up and was sort of looking at the menu, too. The wife ended up saying “Ah English! Are you from the US” – at which point we started all talking for a moment. Now, it would have ended there but she was wearing the most vibrant colorful (me-want-able) knitted shawl thing, so I had to tell her how pretty I thought it was. She slightly beamed and let me know that she actually made it (no doubt the cause of said beaming). Then, the conversation continued and we all ended up going inside and eating together.
I think one of the best parts about traveling has little to do with where you are in the world and much more to do with the state of mind you’re in. In California it’s not like I’ll see someone in line at a restaurant, strike up a conversation and then eat dinner with them. And, similarly, it’s not like I super-duper-ly value every passing conversation I have with strangers. But, when you’re traveling, you feel so happy, receptive, and free – you’re in a place where you can truly and sincerely appreciate all these different people and the transient exchanges are viewed more as precious gems and less like forgettable blips. Having dinner with some random couple becomes one of the highlights of your day. Meeting someone similarly interested in AI and then having a chat about consciousness with them while wanting to throw-up takes on an almost magical serendipitous quality (well, save for the wanting to puke part). I just think that that’s so great – it makes every day so much better, so much more juicy and technicolored, when you allow yourself to get so much satisfaction and meaning from these sorts of things.
But back to the story! So we had a lovely meal with the couple from Iowa and they told us all about their journey thus far. They had just arrived in Prague a few hours prior to our meeting, they were staying at the InterContinental, which, I’ve gathered, is a super fancy-shmanshy hotel, and they had just driven here from Germany. They rented a car, stopped by random villages, had lots of delicious wine, and were generally living the good life. I think I mentioned this in my Florence entry but I’ll say it again – I think Europe via backpacking is seriously different from Europe with lots of money. Both are great… but they are great in very very different ways 
I’m looking forward to one day trying it the other way, too. hehe
After we said our goodbyes (oh and by the way, the meal was FANTASTIC! I had chicken, the most delicious sauerkraut ever in the history of my life, and dumplings (two types)) and Leslie had fried cheese) Leslie and I had time to burn before Black Light time. So, since Leslie was interested in buying some small piece of art, we decided to walk the Charles bridge to see if any of the street vendors struck her fancy. However! While crossing we bumped into two guys from our touring group and they told us that they had just left the marionette shop on the other side of the bridge and that it was “unreal” . Now, the tour guide told me about this magical shop but I figured it would be closed by this hour so I was planning on going tomorrow. But! I looked at Leslie with glittery-splendor in my eyes and she knew… we had to go straight away! We hurried ourselves across the bridge and found the place…
It was soooooooooooo awesome. So so so so so awesome! Like our last post mentioned, Prague really is like magic fairytale land – and this marionette shop fit right in. The woman running the shop is what I think really made it. In her heavily accented but fairly understandable English she told us lots of stories behind each of the marionettes. She explained that she in fact had made a fair number of the marionettes in the store and that each one was special to her. I think she’s also pretty big into astrology and hippie things generally because at one point she and I were talking about mermaids (which, if case you don’t know, I totally adore) and I think she made mention of their spiritual significance. In the end I couldn’t help myself, I splurged and bought a marionette vodyanoy, which is, in Czech lore, the waterman or spirit. She explained the story to me and that he is the father of the mermaid. I knew it was meant to be. She even wrote down for me the name of an opera, named Rusalka, based on both the vodyanoy and (more primarily) his daughter, the mermaid. How perfect is that?
After she and I had finished chatting, Leslie asked her for advice on which of these two marionettes to buy. In response the woman did a sort of personality read on Leslie. She said something like “When you first enter a new area you are quiet and observant. You don’t talk much and you come off as serious and cold. But, once you feel comfortable, you come to life and are warm and playful. Leslie and I laughed about this in part because it’s a bit true. We look back on these videos and get a kick out of the fact that Leslie looks like the serious one when in fact, that’s really not true at all! It took a bit of time, though, before I realized how absolutely hilarious Leslie really is. But it took marionette woman but a few minutes!
After Leslie and I had finished up I asked the woman which of the marionettes in the shop she felt most special. She explained that it was the mermaid she had most recently created. It reminded her of her childhood, when she was free to be a princess. To have unadulterated fun. So I asked her to stand by her favorite marionette so I could take her picture. It just so happened that her mermaid was next to a traditional Czech devil marionette and so, she was standing between good and evil, looking towards the good.
At this point it was high time for Leslie and I to go to the theater. We got there and were pleased to discover that we had, seriously, the best seats in the house! I really tried to secretly video tape some of the performance but I messed up and flipped nothingness instead. But, if you go to the performances website, they have video there. Sorry about that!
All in all I’ll just say that I totally loved the performance. It was weird and funky and magical and fantastic. I think I liked it more than Leslie (not that she didn’t like it, but I think it was a bit too weird and out-there for her) but that’s ok! It had a bit of (unexpected) female upper nudity and we all know how Leslie feels about nudity! (If you don’t, shame on you! Go watch the videos from Vienna!)
After that we walked around for a long time before calling it a night.
All in all quite a magical day.
And to see all the pictures, click here.
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