off again

ever lazier

I have to admit I didn't get out of bed until like noon today, and then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around aimlessly, tipsy on hot wine. Whatevs. I'm on VACATION, ok?

The picture on the top right is a statue carved on the side of a building, surrounded by a net, like a mosquito-netting tent or something. All of the statues have them - anyone know what that's for? It's definitely not strong enough to protect them from weather or vandalism...

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The Happy Days Casino is one of many here. Like on every corner.

At one point, I suddenly realized I had no money left when I thought I should have had around 10 bucks. I went through in my head super carefully what I had spent on and could not figure it out. Then it occured to me: OMG, I was pickpocketed! I got kind of excited about it, to tell the truth. See, for like every city I've been in there have been these dire warnings about the terrible things that might happen, like how Rome was full of people who'd steal your purse and grab your ass given half a chance, and in Venice con artists would try to run scams, etc. etc., yet so far no one had even TRIED to steal, grope, harrass, cheat, or in any way bother me at all. It was starting to hurt my feelings. So I was kind of psyched to have 10 taken from my bag. But then later, inexplicably, like 5 showed up again that I couldn't account for either and I swear wasn't there like an hour before. So maybe I just can't count.

Yes, that is a mechanical bull on someone's rooftop.

czilling

I do have pictures from today, but this compomper won't recognize my camera so I'm afraid they'll have to wait.

If there's one thing I wish I could get a photo of here, but can't, it's old ladies' hair. You know the jokes about blue hair, well, today I saw one woman with hair bright lavender, another with hair the color of tweety bird, several with shocking pink and red streaks...it seems like most women here have dyed theirs but it looks coolest and craziest over gray, I guess.

Most of the statues are black and the old buildings are black, with gold and copper-green for accents. It looks amazing. It's such a dramatic look but also subtle with the shades of green. I really love that combination, and what a change from all that damn white marble. This is what I was thinking about today when I sat in the Christmas market in the old town square, drinking hot wine and watching people walk around. By the way, I retract my former mocking of hot wine. It is pretty damn good.

Possibly my favorite thing in Prague so far is the supermarkets, though I can't really explain why. I just like looking at all of the rows of familiar-unfamiliar products. And I like that theyre underground and have special gently sloped escalators for your shopping cart. Its like the secret fluorescent labyrinth of grox.

Oh, and there's a store near where I'm staying called "Door Face." I thought this was such an awesome name, I peeked in, but couldn't buy anything, because they really just sell doors.

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Today I did anti-tourism, and what I learned is: I am stupid.

I went to the train station to buy a ticket, the post office to mail some postcards, a coffee shop for an espresso and pastry, a drugstore, and a grocery store. All of these things were within a mile of each other. Yet it took me all day. And every single part of it was DAMN HARD.

It is so disorienting to be unable to understand any signs or written instructions. I couldn't figure out the right entrance to the train station, or the take-a-number system at the post office, or where to order at the coffee shop or basically ANYTHING. I was an utter bumbling fool all day, and I did everything wrong. In Ireland things were a little strange, and in Italy they could be downright confusing at times, but here I am completely lost and helpless unless some Czech person takes time off from their busy schedule of being rude to tourists to help me out.

I guess I didn't realize how much I was relying on the fact that I can actually understand quite a lot of Italian words even though I can't speak it. Czech is entirely different, and my idiocy here is very humbling. I mean, of course it's my own fault. Why should I be able to show up here and have everything put into English for me when I can't even be bothered to figure out basic phrases in the local language? Obviously, I shouldn't, and the whole thing makes me feel a little queasy.

Random observations about Prague:

1. There are lots of really huge dogs everywhere.
2. There are also lots of dudes with hairmats. (hi Jess)
3. I am starting to believe my own theory-slash-delusion that I can tell who is Czech or not based on their nose.
4. The prices in H+M are greater than or equal to those at home.
5. You can buy hot wine on the street at  8 AM.  But why would you? Or maybe...why wouldn't you.

Oh and also, before he left for home, Natan demanded a blog shoutout. HI NATAN. Have fun back at work, sucker.

splat

I'm so freaking tired. Not sleepy or even physically tired, just sick of sightseeing, and completely unenthused at the prospect of spending another day walking around looking at monuments or neighborhoods or buildings or whatever and taking pictures of them. I wish I had something real to do, like a job or a volunteer project, or a class, I don't know; just
something else to DO. All this tourism is making me psycho.

Second night of chanukah! So here's a fun game for the Jews reading. Can you spot what is wrong with these pictures?

No, it's not the Mullermilch playing the part of wine...or the sour cream and onion chips filling in for latkes...or the round challah doing donut duty. In fact, the chanukiah that Natan and I went all the way to the biggest synagogue in Europe to buy - is, in fact, only a MENORAH! Shit, we're 2 candle slots short! This raises many questions, but mostly this one: why would the gift shop be selling a menorah amongst the chanukiot in the first place?? Is it a mistake on their part, or an evil evil trick?

(I'm sorry to those of you for whom the above makes no sense, I'm too lazy to explain on on this weird keyboard, look it up on Wikipedia or something.)

So, OK, Budapest. After I wrote my first entry about it I realized that what people meant by "dirty" is probably that the buildings are dirty - and they totally are, it's obviously very polluted and the walls that aren't falling to bits are discolored by it. But the streets aren't full of trash or anything, all the public transport was in good shape - so it
still didn't feel like a dirty city to me. Just to clarify.

At the train station last night waiting for the overnight to Prague, Natan and I ate in the strangest restaurant yet. It was like a huge ballroom, inside a train station, filled with the sound of Hungarian 13 year olds enthusiastically kareokeing. It was like piped in on loudspeaker or something. The menu was also pretty good. I was tempted by "diced paste with curd cheese and craclings," but since the craclings sounded suspiciously meat based, went for the accurately named "Vegetarian Food" entree instead. Natan chose "Beef-goulash with homemade flour pellets" although I was really pushing for "Chicken breast stuffed with spicy cheese french fries." You can't say we lacked for options.

As everyone knows, Prague is awesome, but my heart was not in taking photos today so sorry for the meagerness.

p.s. I am going gray. The blue has washed out of the top of my hair and left grayish bleached streaks. Hot.