Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

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Tuesday May 26, 2009

The next day we continued our tour of the city. We visited Wenceslas Square to start and did a little shopping along the way--it was very hot which slowed us down a bit. Scott bought a great pair of shoes from Vagabond -- very hipster.

We decided to stop at Tesco, the local grocery/department store and that's when it happened... I went into the store and my camera was safely tucked and zipped in my bag. I left the store, reached for my camera and it was nowhere to be found. Gone! Losing my camera really put a damper on the day. Optimistically, I checked with security at Tesco and stopped in to the Prague lost and found office. The clerk at the hotel even wrote a note for me to show the staff at Tesco -- very few spoke English and we found Czech to be very difficult to master. Even the pronunciation of "thank you", "please", and "excuse me" often eluded us. Of course, my camera was nowhere to be found. I knew it was a long shot to ever find it again -- Prague is supposedly crawling with pickpockets but I couldn't give up hope until I'd exhausted all possibilities. Fortunately, Scott and I brought two inexpensive cameras on the trip with us for just this contingency. Too bad we didn't bring enough memory cards to change them out every day. I lost the pictures I took in Berlin and my camera had all the pictures of our visit with friends in Frankfurt. This was very disheartening and I think it ultimately colored my impression of the city. Prague was beautiful but it was my least favorite destination on this trip.


We took the tram across the river and walked down Nerudova, a street known for its colorful and imaginative house-markers.

Prague is a medieval city and many structures were constructed before buildings were numbered. Crests adorned the entryway of many establishments.

We wound our way up the Hill toward Prague Castle (Pražský hrad). It was fairly steep so we stopped for an espresso and cute gingerbread on the way.

Prague Castle towers high above the city and offers breathtaking views. The admission was fairly complicated. The Castle attractions only take cash and there is an extra charge for the audio tour which requires that you leave either a credit card or ID with the clerk in order to check-out the equipment. We felt like we were having such bad luck that day, that we decided to skip the audio tour rather than leave our credit card in unknown hands.

We toured a number of buildings and St. Vitus on the castle grounds. We exited into a vineyard with sweeping views.

I thought this infinity sign painted on the wall of a local building was a fitting symbol of the region and a reminder of what we'd learned on this trip. A series of tanks and construction vehicles follow each other in an endless loop. War breeds destruction followed by construction and rebuilding followed by more war. What's the point of it all?

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