Kafka's Prague
Got in about 5p, so headed straight for the airbnb. Another really nice one I get all to myself. It is pretty close to the city center, so a bit noisy at night, but good. Had trouble with the wifi, which was a problem because I used it every night to plan the next day. Walked over to a Starbucks (free-wifi) to let the owner, Jan, know what was going on. About an hour later, he came back over and fixed the wifi (but tv still not working). Thank goodness for Netflix.
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Headed out early the next morning...and dang! Prague is BEAUTIFUL. The Charles Bridge is BEAUTIFUL. The Cerny babies are BEAUTIFUL. The Lennon Wall is...disappointing. A much smaller wall than I expected. The Kafka musueum didn't open for another hour or so, so I found a spot by the water to just sit and marvel at the beauty that is Prague. I hate that it was so cloudy because my pictures wind up being so dark.
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Those babies are HUGE!! and look closely at their faces...creepy. He also put some of these crawling up a TV tower just outside the city (sadly, didn't have time to check that out). Started walking to the Kafka house and stopped in this tiny hole in the wall to get some hot chocolate...best thing I had to eat or drink so far. Real milk and real chocolate...and cheap for Prague (which btw is SUPER expensive). It was starting to get colder (I was heading further north on my journey), and I had about 20 more minutes to kill, so I sat in the courtyard outside the Kafka house to drink my hot chocolate and laugh at the people who stumbled across this gem (also by Cerny):
Their torsos move side to side and their penises move up and down while peeing in this fountain. Several Asian tourists stopped to take pictures of themselves next to it, pointing at the penises. Kafka would have enjoyed that this was outside his museum, I think. The Kafka museum was one of the weirdest (and best) museums I've ever visited. Very dark and shadowy, with weird, creepy music (occasionally punctuated with the sounds of typewriters or ravens cawing). I LOVED it. A quote on one of the walls inside: "The Messiah will only arrive when we no longer need him." I'll forgive the sexist nature of the quote for the genius of it.
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Then I headed to Wenceslas Square (which isn't really a SQUARE, but rather a sort of long avenue with an island down the middle) which featured some interesting sculptures. This led me to the Kafka head which is yet another Cerny sculpture. The photo doesn't do it justice, as every few seconds, the sculpture changes shape. Fascinating.
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Then went to the "Dancing House" which used to be known as "Fred and Ginger." This is an office building designed by Frank Gehry. Fun to look at...but it was gettting so windy I moved on fairly quickly.
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Headed back to have lunch at my airbnb--this one was so nice, the "breakfast" he left me also made lunch! Then, off to the train station for my trip to Berlin!
Impressions:
Prague is super expensive
so far, the most "modern" city I've visted here
lots of English speakers, and lots of British tourists
have I mentioned yet how beautiful the place is?
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