Zoo

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love animals. They bring out the little kid in me, and often make me a little giddy. This of course translates perfectly to a love of zoos. Zoos are the perfect blend of child and adult themepark. A proper zoo has rides, balloons, bright shiny colors, and if possible touchable animals. Combine all that with the educational plaques, beautiful views, and hopefully decent food, and you get a wonderland of entertainment. I could wander a zoo for days, and come back a week later and be amazed. Needless to say I have been anticipating a zoo trip since my arrival in Prague. The worst part is that the zoo is walking distance from my house. The day finally arrived on Saturday. The weather was beautiful. Sunny with just a few clouds in the sky, warm enough not to wear a jacket, but not so much as to be uncomfortable. Megan and I started the trek from my house, which gives us two options. We can follow the road around, which is the easier route I would say, or we can cut over Troja hill and go through the large botanical gardens. We, of course, chose the latter. The large park is beautiful, and just beginning to flower and bud. Lots of people were of course out on this fine spring day, and we made a few discoveries, including some spectacular childrens playgrounds (that it took great personal restraint to stay out of) and some community firepits (which I hope to take advantage of). The long walk ended in our arrival at the zoo. The Prague zoo is magnificent, though not all the exhibits were ready for the season, yet, so I will have to go back. Megan and I managed to show up at every exhibit just before the crowd arrived, so we were lucky not to get trampled too much. About midday we stopped at a little grill and got some klobasa, then headed down to the chairlift that runs between the top part of the zoo and the bottom part. Finally we headed into the childrens zoo to pet the sheep, goats,and Llammas with the other kids (though Megan clearly has more difficulty finding her inner child than I do). We ended the day with the walk home, which was uphill, and so more difficult after a day of walking, and dinner at the italian restaurant in my building. Pictures

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was mostly quiet. I had very few plans. I went to Pub night as usual on Thursday with dancing after. On Friday my friend and colleague Anne had planned a little dart night at Harleq'in. Megan, Aidrian, Rob, Marta, Matt, and I all showed up to toss a few darts. most people slowly dissappeared, but as the night grew long, Anne talked Megan, Aid and I into going to the Piano Bar, though i'll admit I needed little convincing. Aid and Megan were the toughest. Aid had plans to go out of town with Rob and Marta the next day, but in the end he joined us. We wandered over to the Piano bar making a couple of stops on the way. At one bar we were refused draft beer becasue they were "out". This was my first lesson in attempts by bar owner to increase their margins using the late night crowd. In the end, we made it to Piano bar. Unfortunately there was no Piano playing for the night, but we did get a very fun drag variety show. Lip synching, dresses, wigs, et al. Around 4am Megan and I decided to leave, though Aid and Anne stuck around. I got directions from Aid to make sure I got home ok, and verified those directions with Anne. That's really when th night started to fall apart. Megan was exhaisted to the point of being nearly incapacitated. We followed the directions given, but after a fw minutes of walking realized we were going in the wrong direction. We found the nearest tram stop, and decided to wait for the next tram in our direction, as it was not long due. It came promptly, and took us over to IP Pavlova, where we could catch the last night bus back to my neighborhood, at 4:45. We hopped on , and to keep Megan distracted from her exhaustion, I went through her Czech flash carsd with her. Apparently the driver decided not to finish his route, something I still don't understand. We realized this after about 20 minutes on the bus and we were passing Muzeum. Shortly thereafter we arrived back at IP Pavlova. Now about 5:15 we went down to take the Metro which starts at 5am. Eventually it rolled into the station and took us to Kobylisy, while Megan tried to catch a nap. At Kobylisy we had to wait for the first morning bus to take us home, which didn't pull up until almost 5:45. We finally managed to get home around 6am or thereabouts. Sometime during all of this, I had promised Megan that she would have a completely lazy sleep day on Saturday, so that's what she got.

The search for Einbahn

Megan and I went to Vienna on Saturday. I was well overdue for a trip out of the country, both morally and legally, but I wanted to do something different than the standard trip to Dresden which is by far the shortest and easiest trip to make. In any case we bought the tickets Friday afternoon and had an early night as the train would be leaving at 6am. We were runninga little late on the way in in the morning, but so was the train so we got on our way a little before 7am. The train ride was mostly uneventful as we were both very tired and slept for the bulk of the trip. Unfortunately the listed time it takes to get to Vienna is incorrect so we got a little concerned as we passed our arrival time while still in the Czech Republic. There was also a brief fright when the Czech border guard stared a little long at my passport, probably wondering why this was my first trip out of the country (Americans are only allowed to stay for 90 days at a stretch). In the long run we finally made it to Vienna at about noon. The map I had downloaded of the internet only included historic Vienna, so we had to find our way from the South Train Station to what is called "the Ring". The Ring is basically a semicircle around Vienna where most of the historic buildings are. The plan was to stroll around this boulevard, ad then cross the center to see St. Stephens Cathedral, then head up to the Danube and maybe get a glimpse of the giant Ferris Wheel. The problem of course is finding the Ring from the Train Station. On the bright side, I picked the right path and it led us into town. Once more or less near the ring it can actually be a little hard to figure out which street it is, until you know. There were lots of signs that said where to go and what to see, so with a little triangulation we managed to find our way onto the ring. This might have gone quicker excpet there was one sign that kept confusing me. it pointed in several different directions and seemed often to conflict with the other signs that were slowly but surely leading us to the Ring. I finally decided to ignore it and find the site on the map later after we were on the ring. Later in the day I compained to Megan that I kept seeing this sign everywhere and wondered what it was. It must clearly be an important site, because there were signs all over the city. She looked at the sign which read "Einbahn". She looked at me and said, "that means 'one way' dear." I laughed. Good for me, at least I didn't try to follow them.
We had lunch at a South American restaurant that was very good, and ten wandered the city for most of the day. We managed to circle the ring and see many of the historic buildings, and also have some time wandering the cobblestone streets in the center around the Cathedral. We took a tour of the catacombs, but though it was very interesting, they were by and large disappointing. By the time we got to the Danube we were pretty beat, and decided that the distance view of the giant Ferris Wheel woudl have to do, as we still had a long walk back to the train station. On the way we stopped at a cafe to have a drink and then, xince we arrived quite early at the station, I sat down for a cup of coffee. Eventually we boarded our train which left at around 6:30, and started the long journey back to Prague. We ate dinner on the train, a first for both of us, and then napped and talked in our compartment until we finally got home around midnight.
All in all Vienna was a spectacular city. The architecture is grand, and elegant, and everything is gilded. The parks were already green, and the trees were budding, and we were blessed with a warm and sunny day. However, it was good to get home to Prague. Pictures.

The Triumvirate of Health and Happiness

One of the interesting things about teaching is that you never know what your students are going to say. Most of them have been taught by at least one other teacher, usually several. Their conversations of course are limited to whatever English they can recall (which admittedly is far better than my Czech to give credit). Strangely their responses can sometimes give insight into their culture. I was teaching a class today on family life and we were brainstorming on what you need to grow up healthy and happy. We made a pretty good list, and I was impressed with their insights. However, what stuck out were three of the seemingly more important items, which if you know the Czechs is not altogether surprising. They were: Peace, Love, and Good Weather.

Spring has finally come!!

Saturday the weather had finally turned nice, and Megan and I decided to go to Petrin Hill, which is something I hadn’t seen yet, as it’s mostly and outdoors kind of attraction. We took the metro over the river, and walked in the sunshine over to the funicular which takes you to the top of the hill. In fact we didn't know exactly where this was, so we had a fun time walking through Mala Stranska trying to find it. Along the way we happened accidentally into a little park with a duck pond and some pretty architecture. There was also a very pretty sundial, which does not keep up ith daylight savings time, by the way. Once we made it to the top of the hill, we wandered around in the nature for a while, and then headed over to the main attraction. Petrin hill is topped by a scale model of the Eiffel Tower. According to the literature, if you include the hill on which it stands, the top is about the same height as the original. Built in 1891, it was restored in 2001, to make it safe and pretty again. We walked up the 400 stairs or so to the top, which is an adventure. The stairs wind around the outside of the tower. The steel grid is of course between you and certain death, but its still open air, and when you get up close to the top the dangers of vertigo are very real. The steps are narrow and steep, so you have to be careful. I took lots of pictures from the top, including one that is just looking down. As I write this I have not viewed them, so hopefully they turned out well. After the tower we went into the basement where there is a strange museum of artifacts from what appears to be a wholly fictitious historical person, “Jara Cimrman, genius who has not become famous”. The museum is very comical however, and I recommend it if you are ever in Prague. Finally, we went to an exhibit that has a mirror maze and some fun mirrors, as well as a seemingly out of place but very interesting exhibit about the Swiss invasion. All of this was built in 1891 as well, and was impressive considering the time. We were pretty tired at this point and wandered leisurely down the hill to lunch at Bohemian Bagel, then headed back to Krakov to rest. That night we went to dinner and were joined by Scott. We had a few beers and discussed the history of the Czech Republic at length before going to bed.