Praha nights... and days

Gardens below Prague Castle - note the gorgeous day

In the gardens below Prague Castle

No guns allowed in the Senate gardens. Also no whatever that is top left. You hear?

The gardens below Prague Castle


Friday night we decided to let off a bit of steam and went out on the booze as a class. Cue speaking loudly and obnoxiously in English on the metro - whoops! I'm eternally annoyed that I'm paying about triple the price for a vodka etc. than everyone else is for beer, but that's my fault really. Anyway, we walked across Charles Bridge and back, and I must say, Prague by night is really something. We're all so busy working on assignments and stressing out about teaching classes, but it was one of those, "Hang on a minute, we're in fricking Prague!" moments. Nobody got as spectacularly drunk as I might have wished, including myself. Some people went back home quite early, but the 'hard-core' took the metro out into the suburbs a bit, to everyone's favourite stop on the line, 'I.P. Pavlova'. The charm of 'I. P. Pavlova' is probably impossible to understand without being here - but if you look at that and say to yourself, "Eye Pee PavLOVa", you're way off. It's "Eee Pay PAVlova" and listening to the metro announcer say it is one of life's little joys here in Praha (as we locals term it). Anyway, we kept getting kicked out of bars in I. P. (not for drunken misbehaviour, but because they were closing at about 12.30) which was a shame because we found one that sold 500 mls of Gambrinus beer for about $1.60 ha ha. I went home after that but a few people (LAURIE) stayed on and drank absinth to the wee hours and regretted it severely the next day.

Talking of the next day, it was up early and to the cafe to work on our fiendishly difficult grammar analysis assignment - d'oh the pain. But that didn't stop me and Scotty going in to Wenceslas Square (main shopping drag) that arvo & me & four of the boys going back out to I.P. in the evening - who wants to spend a month in Prague and never stir out of Budejovicka (our 'burb, as the more perceptive will realise). Had some drinks and some fun - best part was waiting for the metro home, where we played the fun little game of "is anyone coming down the escalator going to step on the dog poo on the last step?" And indeed some people did...

On Sunday, after a little bit of homework in the morning, I headed into the city because it was the most gorgeously sunny hot day, not one cloud anywhere in the sky, as you will see when I have more photos to upload. I went to an exhibition on Durer, which was okay, but one of those where they cunningly take mostly things that are already in the Czech national collections and charge you a premium (well, about $3.50) to go see them housed all together. Based around 'The Feast of the Rose Garlands' if anyone cares to Google it. Then I took a stroll in the Palace Gardens below Prague Castle, which are pretty wicked terraced gardens that run up the hillside - originally the hill was fortified with the terraces, now they are lovely gardens - great views from there as well, but man was I a sweaty monkey! After that I struggled in vain to find the Kafka Museum - Jess will laugh if she's reading this, because we probably walked past it 5 times together when she was over, but it's not in my guide book and I just could not retrace my steps - and no-one else knew either. I ended up instead going into the gardens of the Wallenstein Palace (yep, more gardens, what's with that?) which now houses the Czech Senate - and they were pretty nice too.

Assignment's due tomorrow, wish me luck...