More markets!

There are numerous farmer’s markets in Prague but two in my book were on Saturdays only. I went to both. I walked to the Naplavka Farmer’s Market; it was nice but quick- I was out of there in five minutes. A little later I took the metro to the Dejvice Farmer’s Market, which was more like a cultural food festival. For one thing, they had someone selling those raw fruit and nut bars; I bought one to eat and later bought three to take back to the hotel. There were stalls selling food and some kitchen items. And there were numerous stalls dedicated to food and items from different countries, mostly Africa and Asia. There might have been countries I’ve never heard of (or countries I have heard of but did not recognize because they were spelled in Czech). We’re talking Eqypt, Ghana, Morocco, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. There was live music and beer and wine everywhere. I had grilled calamari. I stayed for a bit, practiced saying ‘good day’ and ‘thank you’ in Czech so I seem less like a douche bag.

By the way, these people can drink. The beer culture here is like the coffee culture in SF. In the middle of the afternoon people are at sidewalk cafes drinking beer. And the smoking. If I were going to smoke again, this would be the place to do it. Of course I’m not going to because when I smoke I get nauseous. A lot of restaurants allow smoking. I’ve inhaled more second hand smoke in the last week than I have in years. Luckily for me, unlike most former smokers, I’ve never had an aversion to cigarette smoke. 

I came back to the hotel and talked to my mom for some time (Hi Mom!) and then went to a cafe behind a tobacco shop called Cafe Dobre Trafiky. I tried to work on a new project, but got no where, so worked on the old one. 

One of the things I do when I write in a foreign country is ‘mistranslation,’ which is when you write what it sounds like people are saying. When I allow myself to be ridiculous, I can come up with some interesting language this way. Yesterday I heard a Czech man say ‘fuck-nado.’ Yes. A tornado of fuck. I will surely utilize this later.

 I had theater tickets but wanted to go to yet another vegetarian restaurant (I got one more to try I am hoping to get to today). The one I went to last night was Lehka Hlava. The food was good an there waiter was cute. They had a menu for ‘breatharians.’

I went to the Image Theater to see their Black Light Theater. It’s basically a pitch black stage with people dressed in florescent customs, holding florescent props, doing stuff. In between there were two guys who did kind of slapstick stuff (not in black light). I found that part annoying. I didn’t get the comedy. The only part of that I liked was when they came into the audience. I was sitting on the end so I got to be included. They were pretending to open people’s heads to see what was in their brains. In my case there was a baby that apparently looked like the guy sitting behind me. So the theater was so-so. Puppets shows are also big here (as are marionette shops). Maybe I’ll go to one. There is one based on Don Giovani. I don’t know that story. There were a bunch of clubs I had researched near the theater. I considered going to the one very close; I could hear the music. Then I was reminded why I hadn’t wanted to go there to begin with. They had a ZZ Top cover band. I fuckin’ hate ZZ top.

Afterwards I figured I was near the Charles Bridge and I should see what it was like at night. I walked there and it was very pretty. I tried to get a good picture but don’t know how successful I was. I always think that if I had one of those big cameras with the big lenses, I would look more like a ‘photographer’ and less like a ‘tourist,’ but then I would have this big thing hanging from my neck all the time instead of the discrete little thing I slip in and out of my bag.

So that was my day. Back to the metro. I had to wait a whole five minutes for my train; it’s usually less than three. I know this because there is a screen that tells you. 

From here on in, I think I’ll be staying in my neighborhood, the one west of me that I have not tackled yet, the one north of here which is the old town with all the stuff, and maybe across the bridge. So I’m going to try to only walk for the most part.