Hrůzostrašný

Prague = not fun.

I mean, why pull any punches? I figure you guys have been faithful enough to continue reading our updates about the cool and fun places we've been up to this point, why would it do us any good to tell you a place was awesome when it really wasn't?

And let me tell you: Prague wasn't.

Melissa would tell you it wasn't all bad, and it I guess it wasn't. The cityscape, the Charles Bridge at night, and the general gothic-ness was pretty cool. The food was pretty good. The price of our hotel and our airfare was pretty good too, as was the hotel itself. But all that could have been experienced in about a day and a half. Let me just go ahead and list what wasn't good:

• The temperature. It was cold. I mean really, really, subzero, stinkin' cold. Not good for city walking. Plus there was no snow, which is really the only pay-off for cold weather in Prague.


• The pickpockets. We weren't actually pickpocketed, but of the 6 people we know who have been to Prague, 2 have been. So I walked around suspecting everyone, including old people. And there were tons of meandering old dudes in Prague.


• Admission fees. What about my face makes you think I'd like to pay $50 to look at a crappy painting and an 600 year-old prayer shawl? When I pay that kinda money, I'd better see some torture instruments (or something equally interesting). Next time I'll just pay you your $50, you can punch me in the mouth, and we can both go about using whats left of our day.

I guess in the end we salvaged what we could of the trip, but for those of you wrestling with whether to go to Prague in the near future, do yourselves a favor and shave a day or so off you itinerary - I promise you won't miss much.

Sometime during day two I began entertaining myself by the number of consonants the Czechs could squeeze into one word. It became a fun little game. I ended up leaving with a sincere appreciation of those few, unique, yet oft-neglected letters of our alphabet. Always mindful of our blog readers (ie, all 3 of you), I decided to snap a few shots that demonstrated this phenomenon. Enjoy, and feel free to share a few pictures of your own when and if you, too, visit the cold, thieve-ridden land of Bohemia.

A good one to get us started. Now, add a screaming 2 year old, an angry wife, an unintelligible map, freezing temperatures, and meandering old-folk/potential thieves, and try to navigate your way around this Gothic wasteland!

Don't you want to rush in and pick up some "zelezarstvi?"

FYI, being able to look through the window here helped in no way. This place had nothing to do with flowers. It may have been a strip club.

Admittedly a bad shot, but snapped on the go with the factors listed under picture 1 in full force. Thank god for that big red flashing red walking man with an X through it, cause I could have sworn "cekejte" meant "please continue walking into moving traffic."

Fortunately being able to look inside did help in this case: this store specialized in little miniature lions and four-fingered gloves.

A tobacco shop. I asked for some "doplnky" and the man slapped me right in the face. I just turned and walked out.

So-named due to the sound you impulsively make when pouring the strawberry goo on your ice cream: "zmrezl..."

When "No left turn" just won't do.

No real consonant-appreciation here, but I was just surprised to see them so concerned about sledding houses. "Watch out Jimmy! Stop playing soccer in the street! Its another one of those dern sled houses!"

-pac