Prague Spring

An uncomfortable-looking sculpture at Troja Palace

Scotty sits on the Troja staircase

The staircase minus Scotty (its loss)

The garden-side facade of Troja

I make friends with a statue (by the way, sitting on the contorted stone lap of a statue ain't comfy)

The other side of Troja

Laurie, Scott, Alasdair, me & Kim at Radost

The Skoda ad which now graces the centre of Old Town Square

Spring has (half) arrived at the National Museum

The stomach-churning tinned sausages you can partake of in Prague. Note the drool (?) dripping from his eager mouth. Ewwww!

My secret trip to Prague is now well underway! For those of you not in the know, it was unannounced on the blog so that I could surprise all of my Prague friends (except Scotty, who is kindly giving me a couch to sleep on, so naturally had to be let in to the secret). The basic rationale behind the trip was - no job, no home, why not? I got here Wednesday evening and it's been great catching up with my 'homebase in Europe' and seeing (some of) my friends. They've proved a slippery bunch to get hold of in secret, so this morning we had to 'fess up to Sonja in order to drag her out of bed.

Anyway, so what have I been up to? Wednesday night Scotty and I popped out and caught up with Laurie in a restaurant - classic mid-sentence "oh my god!" reaction when she saw me. Thursday I spent just walking around Prague, visiting some of my old haunts. It is gloriously sunny and typically cloudless Prague weather and HOT, lovely! On the downside, this has brought about the return of the tourist hordes in Old Town. Old Town Square is so choked with tents and booths and people that you can't even see how beautiful it is. And they've covered up the Jan Hus statue in the middle with a Skoda ad (this is while it's under restoration, but still, it's pretty tacky). On Thursday night it was back to Radost 'home of Prague's beautiful people'. Unfortunately, it was hosting a Maxim party that evening and we just weren't quite beautiful enough. But we managed to squeeze into the tiny portion of the restaurant that was open, and I got to spring my surprise presence on Greg (confused-gradually-becoming-enlightened stare) and Alasdair (nonchalant 'oh hey').

Yesterday Scotty and I went out to Troja Palace, in what appears to be Prague's wealthy 'burbs - they have real houses instead of flats and even gardens, wow! Troja Palace was home to some old-style gardens - meticulously laid-out hedges, which are all very well in their way, but they lack the flashy flowers that today's discerning generation clamour out for - and a fine collection of portraits of dogs and horses (mmm interesting...). It also had really nice painted walls and ceilings, which eventually gave Scotty and me a crick in the neck, but were very pretty for all that. We spent about two hours sitting out in the sun and about an hour in the palace, so shows where our priorities are.

Last night we were meant to be heading out for destinations unknown, but wound up just getting pissed at Scotty's with a few friends, which is agreeably cheaper and pretty much as fun. I was sad not to make it to Lucerna, everyone's favourite 80s disco (which was one of the ideas floated), but hey. I was also pissed that Laurie asked if I was tone deaf. Hey, thanks buddy! I'm not that bad of a singer, am I? Let's blame it on the booze, okay?

Today Prague once again looks glorious (or as much of it as I can see from Scotty's window, & the internet tells me it's 20 degrees), so the plan is to rustle up some of our mates and take a picnic to Letna Park (if that's in fact what it's called) for some fine conversation and sunshine. Hooray!