Praha 26, or In Which Sara Comes to Visit and I Get to Play Tour Guide

(written 2/24/07)

Sara turned to me on the metro coming home and said, “If you want to do your homework for a few hours, I’ll use that time to go shopping – I remember how much you don’t like it,” and I nearly cracked up. I’m glad she’s here; it’s good to have someone who knows Smith, and Smithies to talk to, even if she did transfer to Colgate after only one year. Sara and I shared a room in our first year for six weeks while I was recuperating from an injury, and if she learned one thing about me, it was how much I hate clothes shopping.

I’ve changed a little bit since we were roommates – most notably, I don’t hate clothes shopping as much as I used to – but it’s delightful to hang around someone who’s actually known me for more than a month.

Sara and I have been doing the tourist route, something I haven’t done since my first couple of weeks here. Yesterday, we wandered around Old Town (Stary Mesto) took pictures on the Charles Bridge, drank svarak (hot mulled wine) on the bank of the Charles River, and split a klobasa (hot dog) on Vaclavske Namesti (Wenceclas Square).

Today, we went to the Prague Castle. I’ve been there only once before, and never on the inside. I think I’m a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of art, architecture and artifacts we saw today – the castle is very much a giant museum. However, Sara’s approach to tourism appeals to me. She visits the gift shop first, and buys a decent guidebook to whatever place she’s visiting, and uses that to navigate instead of the measly maps the museum provides for free. That way, we actually knew what we wanted to see, and what we could skip.

We were going to see the opera tonight, but the tickets were sold out by the time we reached the box office, so I think we’re going to go out to dinner (traditional Czech – her choice) with a friend she knows in Prague, and then do the “Prague at Night” photo tour – basically, going to all the same places we went to yesterday and getting shots of the lit-up buildings.
Tomorrow is Terezin. I have only the vaguest notion of what to expect.