Last day in Prague

Today is my last day in Prague (except when I come back here to fly out). I just went up and saw the Prague castle, which was pretty cool. Except I somehow went in the back door of the castle, and was getting really frustrated because my guidebook and map were making absolutely no sense. The sad thing is, it took me like 30 minutes for me to realize that I was going through the whole thing backwards. This is the advantage of travelling alone: you really learn about yourself. I must have always unconciously depended on other people to lead me around, because seriously, I have the worst sense of direction in the world.

Last night was a very fun night, although we didn't end up going to a jazz club. But Teresa assures me that when I come back at the end of my trip, she'll have sussed out the jazz scene a little better and found us a good place to go.

I ended up being kinda glad we didn't go there though, because we went to this amazing wine bar. You enter in, and it looks cool enough, but then you keep walking in through all these tunnels and cavernous cellars. As Teresa was leading the way, I felt like "where the heck is she taking us?" There we bought a few jugs of red wine. I won't comment on the quality of the wine, but I'll just say that I don't think Harvest Vintage Imports would be interested. :)

After the wine bar we went to partake of Prague's answer to Street Meat: Smazeny Syr. You know the regular flat blocks of cheese you buy from the grocery store? Imagine taking one of those, rolling it in batter, deep frying it, slathering it with tartar sauce and putting it in a hamburger bun. There you have a friend cheese sandwich. Also, keep in mind that it's the main vegetarian option in the Czech culinary tradition. I don't know a vegetarain alive that would eat that. I sure enjoyed it though!

Jill, thank you SO much for suggesting I meet up with Teresa. I agree, she is a VERY cool girl, and I was amazed at how much we had in common. And she also had super nice friends. Teresa is going down to Cesky Krumlov for the weekend, but I'm going to get together with her friend Jen tonight.

I also bought a ticket for the marionette theatre tonight. It's the world's oldest marionette theatre, and it's a performance of Don Giovanni that's supposed to be good.

So, on my last day in Prague, what are my reflections on this city?

-As I told Peter on the phone yesterday, Prague is amazing, but there are hardly any Czech people here! Except for the ones working here, everyone else takes off on holidays for August. And many of the people working in the shops etc are foreign travellers who decided to stay put for a while. (I love that they call themselves Ex-pats...so very Hemingway! I've been disappointed that I haven't been able to try out my Czech much, but I've still got lots of travelling ahead of me to places not as touristy as Prague.

-Of the Czechs that are here though, I have to say, the women must gorgeous in the world. There are seriously no bad-looking Czech women. They have such a classy style, you know, they don't wear baggy sweatpants with their underwear hanging out and think they look trendy. They don't tend to be the most friendly people in the world though. I've especially noticed that Czech girls are VERY short with foreign girls. Quite friendly to the men though. Hmm..

-Incredibly humble panhandlers. In Toronto at least, homeless people can be very aggressive, trying to guilt you into giving them money. Here, they stand or sit with their heads bowed and their hands folded. Sometimes they even kneel with their head resting on the ground. And they never look at you or speak to you.

Off now to the train station to buy a ticket to Krakow for tomorrow, and to try to find an english book to read during the 8 hour train ride.