Delta Flight 62

For the time being, I have decided to begin each blog entry with one random fact or observation about life in Europe, as I have encountered it. This segment will be referred to as Today's Czech Minute.
Today's Czech Minute!
European men wear capri pants. This is not to be confused with young American "Emo" men who purposefully buy and wear women's jeans. Capri-length pants are designed and marketed to men in Europe, and, I must say, are worn with great frequency.

And now on with today's story . . .
After a short flight from Washington D.C. to Atlanta (where there was odd security present in the form of several DC policemen as we boarded, and, being the oh so curious person I am, I thought literally nothing of it until I saw Trent Lott walk down the aisle in business class to go to the lavatory. My astute powers of problem solving then made the connection.) and discovering, to my great delight, a Bare Escentuals boutique in the international terminal in the Atlanta airport (!), I finally boarded a large jet for the *actual* flight to Prague (with, of course, some new make-up shoved into my already over-flowing carry-on tote, largely due to my last minute decision to take my poncho liner on board). To my further delight, I was seated next to a young woman, Mischa, who was returning to Prague after a six-week visit to the U.S. We talked for most of the flight and it turned out that she was 15 years old (and MUCH more cosmopolitan than the average American high school sophomore, understandably) and a Czech national. However, for grades 3-7, she had lived in Colorado and Florida while her dad worked on software programming for some sort of banking conglomerate. She had returned to the US this summer partly to camp throughout the Rockies with her family, and partly to visit friends in Florida. She spoke perfect English with the sort of accent that makes you think a person *could* be American, but seems far too worldly, or *could* be European except for the lack of obvious accent. I would love to meet her again in ten or fifteen years to know the sort of adult she has become. It seems certain to be interesting, given how interesting she is at 15. I particularly enjoyed our conversation about the general differences between Czechs and Americans, and was somewhat surprised at how enthusiastic she was about Americans, going so far as to admit that she would choose to live in America in a heartbeat if it were up to her. Apparently she is already working to persuade her parents to let her go to college in the U.S. By this point, I had, of course, had this same conversation with the Czech teachers in Washington so it was interesting to hear the perspective of a younger person. She touched on some of the themes I had heard before, but I appreciated her gentler touch in describing the cultural "rough edges" of Czech life. As we parted ways in baggage claim, I unconvincingly said something about running into each other sometime in Prague, and she quickly agreed, "Oh yes--Prague is a small city after all." If nothing else, this just further underscores the fact that everything really is relative.

I walked out of baggage claim, pulling my two bulky, difficult-to-maneuver suitcases, hoping I would remember what Kamila and Mr. Mach looked like to identify them in the crowd of people waiting to greet international arrivals. (Side note: Customs in Prague is hands-down the fastest and easiest of any country I have ever been in--no lines, the agents barely look at you, and you're through the gate in less than five seconds, I swear.) In Washington, Jan had said that he thought his father would have a sign, but wasn't sure. The good luck that began with the Delta gate agent at Reagan National continued however; sure enough, Mr. Mach was holding a boldly lettered sign that simply said, "Kristi" and was waiting at the end of the gate. He was accompanied not only by Marketa's friend Kamila, who was recruited to greet me as well because she speaks English, but also by Jan's mother, Zuzana. This was a pleasant surprise since she has been ill and is awaiting surgery. I was quickly spirited to Mr. Mach's car nearby, and we were on our way through the city.

The interesting thing about zipping through a city like Prague (international atmosphere/tourist destination/central European capital/formerly of the Soviet bloc) is that you can see, in the buildings, it trying to be many things at once. Many of the buildings are in bad shape, and I was informed that much of the damage was done by a complete lack of maintenance during the Soviet era ("ownership by all" really meant "ownership by none") and that while the government has made great strides towards repairing said damage, it takes a lot of time and money, and it's a task they'll be plugging away at for quite a few more years. It is interesting to me, in general, the way that old buildings are used in modern ways. Where in the U.S. we would knock an old building down so that Starbucks could locate in it's necessary cookie-cutter new building, here they just put the McDonalds in a baroque chateau. Whatever! It's certainly a better use of resources.

Of course, the real reason people come to Prague was made clear to me as we walked down the hill from Pecin Tower, and I came around a corner and saw this:


I know many people who think Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe/the world, but I have to say that this particular skyline, in which Prague Castle and St. Vitus' Cathedral are the central features, was amazing, especially since we were just walking in a nice park with some trees and I wasn't expecting to see anything remotely like this.

Unfortunately, I wasn't quite in the photo-taking zone in those first days (although I assure you I have gotten much better now, to the point that I have been yelled at to stop taking pictures in places where it is not allowed. Whoops!), but I will include a couple more to at least give you some idea of what I experienced those first few days.

Kamila and I with one of the ornamental guards at Prague Castle. The changing of the guard here is much like at Buckingham Palace or Arlington, in that tourists crowd around to watch and take photos. Prague Castle is now the site of the Prime Minister's offices, as well as a museum showcasing the ruling history of Bohemia.


This is a bad picture, but hopefully it gives a rough idea of the just incredible workmanship that went into St. Vitus' Cathedral. It's massive, and every square inch of it is as equally intricate as this doorway.



From the top level of Prague Castle looking toward the river. The green dome of the Cathedral of St. Christopher (?) can be seen on the left.


This is from the summer palace which is inside the grounds at Prague Castle, and this particular building was for playing sports. This type of decoration is really common around the Czech Republic I've noticed--it's from the Renaissance, and the pattern is etched into the stone. I can't imagine the labor that was involved to complete this design on a large building . . .


This is Zuzana! Behind her is Prague, of course . . .


One of the main tourist spots in the city is the Charles Bridge, named for Charles IV who was responsible for building Prague into the bustling economic center that it became in the 1400's . . . we were walking across the bridge and I saw this view down a canal and thought, "Hmm, I want to live in one of those houses!"


And the Charles Bridge itself, taken from a river boat tour. It was the last thing we did on my first day and I think I was asleep more than I was awake unfortunately. That jet lag is a killer!


One of our last sight-seeing stops was in the Old Town Square, and this is the astronomical clock that is quite famous. It dates from the 16th or 17th Century, if I remember right . . .