DAY ONE: February 10th, 2008; Good King Wenceslas

Wenceslas Square (which is not a square but a long wide street) is a touristy area by day, seedy by night (drunkards, prostitutes, you name it) but some pretty sites. This is a side street off of Wenceslas looking at the Henry Tower. There is a bar at the bottom and a restaurant on the 7th and 8th floor. We ate there that evening (I'll write more about that later). It is a Bell Tower along the "Royal Route". The bell is still there between the restaurant floors but I don't think they ring it anymore.

This building fascinated me because of the old architecture below with the modern addition on the top.

I liked this building just because of the slight curves and roundness it seems to have along with all the different "levels". Modern architecture is so plain and boring. Too bad that it's too time consuming and complicated and expensive to make beautiful ornate buildings like they have in Prague (and most of Europe). It would make for a more beautiful place to live.

This building was amazing! The whole thing was frescoed (Painted with images)! It was a beautiful building already but add the artwork of the fresco (even tho they were faded; which does make me wonder how often they have to do restoration on it so they don't lose it completely) and it's a piece of art.

In Prague most buildings are watching you. A little history lesson: most of the statues are images of gods and heroes/heroines to help protect the family that lives there. But there are also the statues of what looks like cherubs but if you look closely these "cherubs" have horns so there are images of demons and "scary" things also to help convince the ghosts or evil spirits that might be floating by that the building is already occupied with evil spirits and demons.

Always being watched. I love this picture. As the guy in the middle is watching all of us down on the street so is he being watched by the big stone guy to the right. The stone guy the left is watching the same thing the guy in the middle is looking at.

This made me think of Lord of the Rings.

This is NOT the same Budweiser we have here in the states. This Budweiser is actually good beer (a dark amber beer) and made in the town of Budweis. As the Czechs say "how can America have a beer call Budweiser when it's not made in Budweis??" Good question! So American Budweiser is called something totally different in Europe ("Bud") and the Czech Budweiser is called something different here in America ("Czechvar").

The man on the horse is sv Vaclav (St. Wenceslas of "Good King Wenceslas" Christmas Carol fame - but he never was a king...but apparently he was a good man). At the foot of the statue is a little modest plague which is "The Memorial to the Victims of Communism". This area is where most of the protests happened before the Velvet Revolution happened. Behind Wenceslas is the National Museum (which is most like our Natural History Museums here). It houses mostly pre-history stuff: stone tools, clay pots etc..., paleontology (some human but mostly animal, and lots and lots of rocks and minerals. There were a few things that were translated into English but for the most part it was all in Czech. Our favorite exhibit seemed to be one on feet. (More on that later).

This is the view from the steps of the National Museum looking down Wenceslas Square.

This was my first "Tourist" shot of my trip. Me standing in Wenceslas Square with the Statue of Wenceslas and the National Museum behind me. Yay! Wenceslas Square is now mostly casinos, high priced hotels and restaurants, shopping establishments (mostly for tourists), several "cabaret" shows and many black light theatres (which was an interesting experience let me tell you...it's theatre in the black light with a touch of Cirque, and a hint of the Muppets. Very strange indeed.

Skiing

So I went skiing for the first time in almost 15 years. Found out that my skis bindings are broken so I had to rent skis...but skiing is like riding a bike...it came back to me like I did it yesterday. Granted my knee was killing me by the end and my ski boots didn't fit as well as they used to so I have some bruises around my calves and ankles but I had a wonderful time!

I promise I will write more about Prague soon...I just needed to report the skiing as it's been over a decade since I've been...

DAY ONE: February 10th, 2008; Uhelny Trh

This was the neighborhood Ellen and I stayed in while in Praha. This particular area was called Uhelny Trh (I'm not sure what the Uhelny means...maybe a person's name but I'm quite sure the Trh mean "triangle" or something of the sort since this area/park was in the shape of a triangle. I didn't get a picture of it but to the left in this picture there are two set of staircases going down into the ground (I thought at first it was like NYC and it led down to the metro which is their version of a subway) but in fact it was just bathrooms that were closed up at night. Our apartment is on the other side and to the right of that red building (we were off a side street). Great location...walking distance to pretty much everything!

This is a daily open-air market just off another side street from Uhelny Trh called Havelska. They sold everything from fruits and vegetables to clothes to souvenirs and novelty items. After 10pm at night this is one of the streets that became part of the red-light district as it had several "Cabaret" shows and of course red-lights. If you continue down this street and toward the left you would end up in Old Town Square which is the hub of the city.





This is a church that was tucked away in a back alley just up the street from our apartment. We found it as we were walking trying to find Tesco (a supermarket). This church in retrospect in not nearly as grand as the ones I'll show you later but it was pretty and quaint and I liked that it was kind of hidden in the alley.



Tesco is kind of like a Fred Meyer. It has five floors...the 4th floor is all electronics, the 3rd is women's' fashion, 2nd is Men's, ground floor was cosmetics, toiletries, cleaning supplies etc... and negative 1 floor was all food and only food. Ellen and I picked up some supplies for breakfast since we have the lovely kitchenette. Now the Czech Crown (Koruna; Kc) to the American dollar exchange rate was about $1 to 17Kc. So a 100Kc was worth about $6, the 200Kc about $12. It was weird cause when I pulled money out of the "Bankomat" (ATM) I would pull out 3000Kc which was worth about $350. Not counting my plane ticket I spent about a total of $936 (but this included the week long stay at the apartment), so all the food, travel, museums, souvenirs, tours plus our apartment all cost less than $1000! It would have been far more expensive if they were on the Euro as our Dollar is only worth 65cents to 1Euro.

Down this street which is Rytirska you can reach Wenceslas Square (which is not a square but a big fat wide and long street) on the right or if you continue straight you can reach Old Town Square (which is a square) on the left...but directly at the end of this street is the Estates Theatre (I have more pictures of it for later) which is where Mozart himself premiered the opera Don Giovanni. The theatre looks rather small for something that grand and amazing...but it's still amazing! I stood where Mozart had been!

DAY ZERO/ONE: February 9th and 10th, 2008; Living in an working Ikea Model

So the drive through Prague is gorgeous, but the driving is even more scary than the driving in New York...the streets are much smaller, cobblestones and people are walking everywhere and cars are parked on either side but the driver doesn't even blink an eye. There were spaces that I believed that the big white shuttle van/bus would not fit through but he got it through with out so much as a scratch!

So the Office of the apartments that Ellen and I are staying in is in this cute little courtyard in Uhelny Trh (which is a very small triangular park-ish place). The driver (who I can't remember his name for the life of me) gives me a map with where we currently are and where our apartment will be and the closest touristy areas are then we walk down the Skorepka Street to the building in which our apartment is located.



So we don't go into the entrance, instead we go into what is referred to as a "Non-Stop" Bar (which means it's open 24hours) to get the keys and to fill out the registration book.Now the driver guy tells me that if we have any problem with the apartment (door doesn't open, toilet doesn't flush etc...) that we just go downstairs to the bar and tell the bartender and they will take care of the problem. Now this would be great since they are open 24hours but the bartender doesn't speak any English and my Czech book isn't quite enough. The bar is smokey...living in California I tend to forget that most everywhere else smoking is still allowed indoors...and the smoke travels into the common areas of the apartment complex. Cough-cough.






This is the Foyer of the apartment...the bar is to the left looking this direction (which is out to the front door that opens to the street).
















This is the Stairway in the apartment complex. We are staying on the 3rd floor (which is actually the 4th floor). In Europe the ground floor is called ZERO the basement is -1 and the first floor off the ground is 1. The apartment complex was stunning. I loved all the wrought iron and marble stairs. There was an elevator that we used to go up...but we always took the stairs down. The elevator was soooo small. It was 2x2...2 people could fit in it but very cozy...one would hope they brushed their teeth and were wearing deodorant!

The doors in Prague are odd...they don't have doorhandles that move...the key has to be turned a certain way and the door just opens...if your lucky. Our door was tricky, or sticky, either way it didn't like to open. But once inside you put the card attached to your key into a slot and all the lights turn on.



Pretty much everything in the apartment was from Ikea. It was almost like being home. We had a little kitchenette with a convection range, a mini-fridge and an electric tea-kettle. The TV only had 3 good working stations on it...which didn't really matter as it was all in Czech (although there were a few American shows/movies which were translated into Czech) so we watched and wondered and sometimes made up our own dialogue...kind of like Mystery Science Theatre 3000). It was quite funny.

The Bedroom was nice as it had two separate blankets for each of us...and of course everything was from Ikea...the bed frame, the mattress, the comforters and sheets, the towels, the curtains...even the lighting was from Ikea!








The bathroom was a hoot. All the toilets (at least in the Amsterdam Airport and all over Czech Republic) have two different flush buttons...once for number 1 and one for number 2...it's for water conservation (smart people). We also had a Bidet (which Ellen and I never used as neither of us knew how...besides it was kind of scary and weird).










In the bathroom there was one red LED light in the shower (not a heat lamp) which made Ellen feel like a stripper (as we found out that we lived between the two "Red-Light Districts" of Prague) and made me feel like food under a heat lamp. It was odd. The strange looking thing next to the shower is a towel warmer...hang your towel over the middle section and it will be all warm and cozy for you when you get out of the shower.










The is the view from our living room winder looking East (towards the Vltava River and Prague Castle).


















This is the same view only looking West towards where the apartment office is and Wenceslas Square. If you look closely down in the bottom right of the picture there is yellow signs...those say "Erotic City" which is an Adult toy store right across the street from our place. Apparently Erotic City is a huge chain in Prague as we saw them everywhere!

The signs that say Hotel is not the place where we stayed...that is a place two buildings up from us.

Well...there you go...this was our home away from home.

DAY ZERO: February 9th, 2008; Drive to Prague

The drive from the Praha Airport into Praha itself was about a 30 minute drive. The driver of the shuttle spoke some English...and I tried to learn the proper pronounceation of the basic Czech language (which has a lot of consonants and not many vowels). I learned how to say hello/good day which is "Dobry Den" (DAWB-Brey Den), goodbye which is "Sbohem" (ZBAW-hem!), Yes "ano" (AH-naw), No "ne" (ne), Please "Prosim" (PRAW-seem) and Thankyou "dekuji" (DyE-koo-yi).

All of these picture are taken from the shuttle during the drive into Prague so please fogive the dirty window and the bluriness. The drive in happened as the sun was setting...by this time (which was about 5:30pm Prague, Czech Republic time February 9th; 8:30am PST) which means I had been up since 11am PST on the 8th (and I had only about 2 hours of sleep before I left for the airport (I got off work early that morning).

The drive was beautiful...it had "bad" looking parts of town...dirty, graffitted and not very exciting...then there was the parts that were breathtaking! I only hope that some of my many pictures can show even a little bit of the beauty of this magnifcent city.

I'm home from Prague!

Dobry den! (Hello/Good Day in Czech)

I am home safe from Praha (Prague in Czech)...and boy am I tired! I promise I will write and post pictures from my trip soon...but right now I must do laundry and sleep as I go back to work tomorrow night. I had a wonderful time and I look forward to sharing my experience with you all.

Na shledanou! ( See you later!)

Sbohem! (Goodbye)

Work to Flight

I got to work on something different last night...no lights (which I am thankful for...getting bored with it all), I worked on wiring the laser scanners for the dragon sequence and the sword flight sequence and then I worked on the water lifts cleaning and replacing valves on the fountains (technically part of what I was doing...and this is the actual terminology, was replacing diaphrams but I had to lubricate them first with KY jelly to help with the seal)..the jokes never ended with this one...being the only girl on the crew and me being the one to actually do this particular job. It was a fun night...tiring, wet and covered in river muck which is quite gross...scared some of the new guys with it and made them squeal and run like a little girl from it...tee hee...it's just mud...sort of.

So I got home at 7am this morning...packed a little more...slept for 4 hours...got up showered finished packing and now I am writing this before I leave in the next five minutes for Prague!!! I will try to up date this while I am in Prague...but no guarentees.

I love you all!

Tired

So I got off work this morning at 7am Saturday and I have a work shift tomorrow Sunday at 8am...I'm trying to decide if I should go to sleep now for a few hours then force myself to get up until tonight or should I try to stay awake until this afternoon? I really hate going from graveyard shifts to morning/day shifts with only a "day" in between. What's worse is come Monday I am back to graveyards.

Aquaram Data and Comets

I saw a beautiful site this morning as the sun began to rise. I was sitting in a muddy lightwell pulling cable for Aquarams when I looked up and saw the crescent moon...then I looked to the left and saw Jupiter and right next to Jupiter was a comet! Not sure what comet it was, I can't remember it's name but it's the one that's been in the news lately...it was so bright. It made the stinky mucky crap I was doing not so bad. I do prefer the graveyard shifts that I get home before the sun rises tho...it's easier to fall and asleep when I get home...but remember this...to those of us who work graveyards it is NEVER the next day until we've gone to sleep first! So even though it is technically Friday morning at 7:32am as I write this it is still Thursday to me!

Time to try to fall asleep as the sun shines and the gardeners mow the lawn. Joy.