Monday, April 02, 2007

Darn Few Reflections From Praha

Given the 63 degree weather in Prague, the Missus and I haven't spent much time at the 'ol Internet Cafe. I can't determine if this is record warmth for April 2nd, but the friskiness of the locals indicates it's at least getting close. The parks are filled with dogs frolicking, while their owners get Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus at the in-park city pub. Too bad ABQ parks don't feature beer gardens...then again, maybe not a good idea.

Too many adventures to list, just enough to say that Prague is pretty much the anti-Burque in many ways, both bad and good. Many tourists in town (how crowded must it be in Summer?), but walking a bit off the main drags leaves one just staring at the buildings along quiet, narrow streets just wide enough for a Skoda.

When you come down to it, Prague is one big museum. A bit dingy, in fact dingy to the point of making one want to get a vacuum cleaner to the whole place, but every step an art gallery. Then there's the whole building from 1100-meets-modern glass skyscraper juxtaposition. That's everywhere, along with the McDonalds beneath the Renaissance-era brownstone thing.

Meanwhile, I believe my watch indicates that the post-Spring Break teaching in ABQ starts in about an hour. Have fun, teaching chaps, I'll be doing a few more days of research here in museum-land.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suppose 1100 year old buildings next to skyscrapers is marginally better than just skyscrapers, but it is still a bit sad when you encounter it. Progress marches on, but it’s hard sometimes to keep perspective. One of the days perhaps the McDonald’s may be something of an “ancient” tourist attraction, though that would mean driving them out business first, and it’s hard to wean people off their fries. But will we really regard the golden arches as possessing an old world charm? “On our left is something called a McDonalds, where apparently 1100 years ago people worshipped food in the form of something known as a Big Mac.”

Anonymous said...

It looks like Prague has everything that you need to live life. Although I haven’t been there I suppose it is really beautiful. In most top beautiful places list, Prague is always present. I hope you can update your post by posting photos of beautiful places in Prague. Care to bring us with you there through photos?