Christmas Carol Crisis

Who knew? Each Festive Season I've been warbling an historical Inaccuracy. According to our tour guide Peter yesterday, Good King Wenceslaus was never a King. He was only a Duke. Still, he must have been a good sort as he was made a Saint. Prague is such a beautiful city, with so many wonderful facades on the buildings, often pastel coloured in blues, orange, pinks and yellows. It is full of outside tables at cafes and restaurants. Considering it can plunge to 27 degrees below in winter, you can understand the desire to soak up what warmth and sunshine there is. Forget a regimented grid pattern. These medieval streets curve and turn. A small square might have six or more streets and alleys off it. Shop windows sparkle with Bohemian glass. I asked Peter about life under Communist rule. He replied that his mother likened Communism to a wasp sting in the arse. On our tour we passed a set of steps in a public garden with various statues there, in memory of those who died under Communist rule. The River Vltavi separates the two sides of the city, with various bridges across it. I love that 'new town' is still dated from the 1400s whilst the 'old town' is the earlier 1100s. Today we headed for the Old Town. Rob found a Torture Museum, which I had NO INTENTION of visiting. Waiting in the square outside, a young man went somersaulting through the air near me. Then I noticed his four friends filming him. All wore "life is Porno" gear. Later he cartwheeled across the road. (in Australia we call this urban activity 'parcor'). We walked across the Charles Bridge, which was full of Souvenior stalls and portrait and caricature artists. We finally found the KGB Museum, run by an enthusiastic man who personally took us around the exhibits. He didn't push an opinion about their reign. He just has a collection of insignia, uniforms, weapons, photos and other items, like the gifts given to all officers on special occasions. He had a cigarette box that fired bullets and a manual for interrogation. Quite a place and he was certainly a character. For lunch we entered a dark building, then up a tower of steps, to emerge to the rooftop. Great views and best food so far. On our wander back, Rob noticed a sign about 'provocative art'. This time it was his intention to give it a miss and wait for me. Basically it was new young artists' work displayed in an old palace. Peter had shown us the famous "hanging horse" work of David Cerny yesterday.


  This gallery featured his works GUNS and SHARK too. Tonight we have booked for a music concert. Prague offers many such concerts, in various venues. It only goes for 60 minutes, so should be a good size dose of culture for us, without overdoing it. You know several things that appear to be everywhere we have been? Thai massage, Italian restaurants and Irish pubs. We saw the funniest Souvenior yesterday. The Russian style dolls, one inside the other. The outside one wore the Mighty Reigning Premiers AFL Footy jumper of Geelong. Open it and inside was the footy player called JOHNSON, inside him was KELLY, then CHAPMAN, then ENRIGHT. The dolls come in all the AFL teams. Something tells me Prague has its share of Australian tourists!!!!!