Oh the places I go.

Okay I know I said no more metro, but one of the museums is in that complicated part of the city where I can’t figure out the roads. So just this last time today I did it. I went to the Prague City Museum to learn about Prague from the beginning of all humanity until the 19th century. I spent a good portion of the time avoiding the class on a field trip with the teacher with a very loud voice. The exhibits were good with real artifacts and some art. The highlight is a 1:480 scale model made my Antonin Langweil of Prague around 1830 made of pasteboard paper on a wooden framework. It was cool- they have a screen you can press to see different parts of the model and when you do, a camera moves to show that part of the model on a monitor, so you can see more detail.  

I went to the National Museum (the new building because the original building is closed for construction) to see the exhibit of Jiri Sozansky’s art commemorating Jan Palach. I loved the paintings. There were some disturbing photographs but I don’t know what they were of. I looked it up and I still can’t figure it out. I was already in Nove Mesto and I was going to see what landmarks and cool stuff I could strategically pass by, but I didn’t have to be that strategic. I found a bunch of stuff by accident. That is what this city is like; you just run into art in your travels. I wasn’t aiming to see Lucerna Palace, a art nouveau building which is essentially a fancy shopping mall with a sculpture of a famous artist hanging from the ceiling. I suppose to SEE this stuff, you have to be a visitor. New Yorkers don’t stare at the Empire State Building and San Franciscans don’t take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and I am sure (Praguers? Pragians?) walk by this stuff with barely a notice.

I made my way to the Leica Gallery to see some photography. It was ok and brief. They said I would get 50% off food in their cafe with the price of my ticket but I had already had Starbucks with my last raw-fruit-and-nut bar (have to go buy more when that farmers market is back). I walked down some prominent streets just to see what they had. 

I also keep thinking everything is so far away. I walked into Stare Mesto almost without meaning to. I finally ate the cinnamon dough tube with vanilla ice cream. I must be spoiled by all the organic ice cream in SF because it tasted a little like chemicals. But it’s kind of hard to not eat the ice cream since it’s in the middle of the tube. (see below) There was really no graceful way through it. I’ve been seeing people eat these things all week and it never occurred to me to watch how they do it. Anyway, I did it; it doesn’t need to happen again, especially since I made reservations at the Italian place in my area that you need reservations for. So I walked around that area a while then back to the Prague Jewish Museum area and then to the water. It’s still beautiful there. I took pictures and sat around and eventually went back to my hotel. I was planning on going back out to work on the manuscript before dinner, but I didn’t want to drink alcohol and it was too late for caffeine (I’m pretty sure they don’t have decaf around here), so I stayed in and did some busy work. 

I went to the pizza place (really it’s an Italian restaurant) a few blocks away. It’s not expensive but it feels expensive and I am aware that I generally feel less comfortable in these places. I got a salad and pizza with ham, mushroom and basil (but the basil was not prominent which was great. What is this nonsense about treating basil like it’s a main ingredient? It’s too strong a flavor to treat it like lettuce. Subtlety is key!)

As of right now I have two days left (it was three when I originally wrote this) and I have pretty much seen everything I want to see. There are a few things here and there but nothing that’s a big deal. So I have three days in a beautiful city to continue to look around, eat, drink and write. And yet I am uneasy with not having a direction. They say this is what a vacation is supposed to be but that whole relaxation thing does not come easy for me. I’m going to try it out. At the least, I am revisiting the vegetarian restaurants I liked and checking out a Lebanese place and hopefully hit a garden or too. Oh, and those fruit bars.

The weather has been beautiful. Today was the most beautiful. Good thing I bought these dresses and too bad I have to keep wearing them over and over again.

When I feel bad about being a tourist, an awkward, English-speaking, confused trouist, I remind myself that I grew up in NYC and now live in SF, perhaps the two most tourist-heavy cities in the U.S. (I’m sure I could look this up but I’m not going to). And I don’t feel particular distain for people who come to my city to look out our cool shit.