Stifling tears, we passed through security (they had to look twice at Greg due to his suspiciously shrouded face) and managed to find our gate despite all instructions being in italian (we were in Italy for a week and still ‘twas all incomprehensible). All parts of the flight proceeded normally although we cannot stress enough Italy’s queuing deficiency (sounds a lot like Poland, to me).
Upon landing in Prague, we had a retooled sense of what it meant to be in a foreign country. None of us could understand any of the signs (except the ones that were in English) and we couldn’t even say ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’. Somehow the phrase “I’d like to buy a vowel” kept popping up in our heads as we pondered how anyone, Czech or not, could pronounce these words.
After a quick stop to figure out where we were and how to get where we were going, we got there and again had to stop and reorient ourselves. Finally gifted with a map of the city (graces of the hostel), we managed to wander through some of the sights of the city, including the Dancing House, where many puns were made, the National Theatre and the Old Town Square.
An interesting little story about the unique Fred and Ginger’s Dancing House: during World War II, Prague was accidentally bombed by a USAF squad that was supposed to be helping bomb Dresden (some hundreds of kilometers north). Obviously, it was a huge mistake and terribly tragic, but one of the buildings that was bombed was rebuilt as this shapely building. So you take the good with the bad right?
People say Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Well, we haven’t been to all the cities in the world, so we’re not going to ignorantly discredit any other cities, but it was very pretty. We will say, however, that Prague has the most beautiful sidewalks of any city, ever in the history of the world.
Tired from an exceptionally long day, we returned to our hostel and had our first taste of Czechian lager: Pilsner Urquell. It was so hoppy, we cut off a foot saved it for good luck (Katie’s Joke, not ours!). Exhausted, we called it a day.
