Praha

This weekend’s big adventure took us to Prague. I was very excited about going after all of the wonderful things I’d heard about it. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed. I definitely thought Prague had beautiful architecture; the buildings, churches, bridges were all amazing. I think the weather didn’t help my impression much because it was cool, grey and rainy all three days. I guess I thought Prague would be hipper than it turned out to be.

I spent a lot of time wandering around wondering what it is that makes a city seem cool or interesting to me. I’ve certainly thought about the contribution of architecture to coolness, but that must not be it, because there isn’t much architecture better than Prague.

The conclusion I came too is that a cool city is defined by the people who live there and what they are up to. I guess it’s why I (and everyone else) love college towns. There is generally such vibrancy and youth that it infects the rest of the town. I could still feel the impacts of being a former communist state and what it must have been like to live there through the cold war and the soviet occupation. There still wasn’t a lot of new going on there, other than tourist trap restaurants and more caricature artist than the county fair. Even though we saw the castle, the gothic churches in the main square, the old jewish cemetery, I left each of them thinking, where is the soul and the culture? Did it go away with the communists? I have, however, started reading more about Prague to see what I’ve missed. I’ve been reading the Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, It is definitely helping to add another dimension to something I missed in Prague.

It could just be my own ignorance about the cool, hip, soulful and cultural things in Prague, but it made me like London a little bit more. When we got off of the train near our flat, Erin stated how boring the buildings were compared to Prague, but I noticed the hustle and bustle of the city. In that first block I found that I think I like London better than Prague. Who woulda thought?

In other travel news, Erin and I forgot to bring the camera…again. I don’t know why we can’t remember to take it places. We purchased disposable camera number two. It’s hard enough for us to download pictures from our camera when we do take it, but to develop film and then scan them into the computer, you’ll have to see Prague pictures when you come to visit.

Ted