Pura vida, baby!: Prague.

We arrive in Prague on a Sunday evening after a 5-hour train ride from Berlin. My first impressions of this much anticipated city is desolate, fraught and frigid. As we walk towards Katerina’s apartment from the mental image of the map imprinted in my head, we walk past a guy who Amber notices has disturbingly large pockmarks on his forearms and a middle-aged woman under a highway on the verge of tears. From the discolorations of her face, clearly a crack addict.

We find Katerina’s apartment easily enough, but already drenched in our own sweat from the searing heat. To our dismay, we find the apartment not air-conditioned. The place is nice though, modern with all the amenities for required for a comfortable stay – wifi, kitchen, walking distance to the town center. Our host was also very accommodating when she offered to buy our overnight tickets to Crakow on our behalf while we were still in Berlin (I found out that the cheapest available tickets were from over the counter at the Prague railway station).

Katerina informs us that during the weekends, locals go to their houses outside of the city to escape the tourists and heat of the city, hence the empty streets. Also, the railway station is located between the apartment and the Old Town Square so we are outside of the touristy areas. I think this is great as we get to see the ‘real’ Prague as well. There’s a very strong booze culture here unlike New Zealand’s. People do not seem as well off and look somber and gloomy. My first impression.

The following 3 days discovering the city turn out to be pleasant and much more colorful! I had made a list of the attractions I had intended to see, but did not eventuate. Reason being the heat just saps our energy here and walking is just exhausting! We easily decided not to see the castle (we’ve been to plenty), and Amber was very reluctant to go to the Torture museum even though I was keen (Half the fun for me was to watch Amber squirm). I decided against seeing it on my own - no biggie. Walking around historic Prague was beautiful in itself and we saw lots of wonderful art on the streets. The Jewish quarter, Old Town, and Charles Bridge were really the main attractions for us.

On the Charles Bridge

Old Town Square

I really loved this amazing painting (Sleepy Prague) in one of the stalls that is our current wallpaper on our MacBook. The other reminded me of Eve tempting Adam with an apple (I don't know if the artist intended to depict this). We were tempted to buy a couple of paintings for our future house back in New Zealand, but decided against it as it would probably get damaged on our journey and it wasn’t cheap. This is the first time I’ve ever really appreciated painted art. Here are a couple I enjoyed the most:

We walked into a tiny Jewish art museum and the lady amiably asked our names so she could tell us what they represented(?) in the Kabbalah alphabet(?). I know nothing about this but her ‘interpretations’ struck us uncannily, describing “us.” Amber had ‘Tet,’(?), which translates as ‘intelligence,’ and my name had ‘Mem(?),’ meaning ‘unconditional truth.’ I liked and felt the connotations and have in mind learn more about Kabbalah.

On our last day in Prague we decide to treat ourselves to a Thai massage! Services are cheap-ish here in Prague and we each chose a 90 minute massage. It was good, but I preferred the broad full bodied strokes that I had gotten from the Ayurvedic one back in Italy. Thai massage can be a little rough and I found myself wincing at a couple of the stretching poses. Amber enjoyed it more than I.

So now we're here in our very big and cool apartment right in the middle of Cracow, and what a lovely town it is! Everything is softer and personable, and accommodation is cheaper. A large apartment such as this one is just over NZ$100 a day. I'm so glad I decided we stay here for 7 days and 8 nights. Amber and I set aside the rest of today to plan our next 7 days to cover all we want to do. Very exciting! Here's what we've come up with:

Krakow: