Last night I hung out with my Slovakian roommate, his Australian buddy, the first and only Czech golf pro (who we met at a Mexican restaurant), and a Brazilian guy, who the Australian had met the night before at a hostel in Croatia. The Brazilian fellow comes from Polish stock. His parents tried to emigrate to San Francisco, but after booking a ship to said city, they found themselves in San Francisco, Brazil by mistake and figured "what the hell..."
Today I wandered around and did my two favorite things in Prague. The first one sadly involves negotiating the droning crowds of people on the Charles Bridge. About halfway across the Valtava, it becomes quite worth it.
This is the "Bridge Band", a collection of fellows that play Dixieland on the bridge all day long most of the week. There's a trumpet, saxophone, tuba, washboard, banjo, and this old guy with a beard that mutters in Czech through an old brass megaphone. Despite the tourists, I'm a big fan of spending an afternoon sitting on the bridge in the hot sun and listening to these guys play.
My other favorite activity is riding and watching Trams. I haven't written about these before, but the streets are rife with them. In certain spots along the river you can watch Trams crossing multiple bridges, slinking their way up hills surrounding the city, or chasing the river down the banks. My favorite place to watch Trams, though, is a street in Mala Strana called Letenska. There is a building that stretches over the street and creates a tunnel, and the Trams, which barely seem to be able to navigate the space between buildings, pass through regularly. Most of the trams I catch to and from various parts of the city seem to pass through here, and it never gets old, whether I'm walking along the avenue or riding in a tram.
It always seems a litte bit like a family theme park to me, only old, European and actually enjoyable.
You still have to stand in line, though.
Tomorrow morning I make for Dublin, and if all goes well I'll enjoy an hour or so in the city en route to New York.
4 comments:
I'm sorry to hear that you're having to leave. :-(
One question: was your hang out buddy a "golf pro" golf pro, or an *actual* golf-playing professional? I read Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption a number of times before I found out that "golf pro" had more than one meaning.
Hey, nice shot of the tram coming through building. I wanted to get that shot before I left, but somehow never quite managed it. Yours came out great.
Sounds like a great last day.
I had no idea....she actually was a professional golfer though.
See, now I have to eat my words, because I realized it's actually *tennis* pros that are gigolos.
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