We came to the grand old city of Prague in the Czech Republic. They call it The city with a 1000 spires.   Since its the only major city in Eastern Europe not damaged by World War I & II it is in beautiful condition with lots of history.   Because of this, locals and  others often say its the  ”Paris of the East“.

That is Becky on the also famous pedestrian bridge called “Charles Bridge”. Great views from it.  It is one kick ass bridge.  Its in all of the movies like XXX. Rachel my sister-in-law said Prague looked beautiful from the movie triple X.

I heard many tales of Prague being cheap and it’s all lies!!!   Maybe they were years ago when they first broke away from communism but now  most things were about the same price as in the USA (at least in Indiana).   Of course, this makes it about 10% – 20% or so cheaper then other big Western Europe cities like Paris or Venice, since the American dollar is so weak when compared to the Euro.  

Since Prague is not part of the EU (European Union),  it still has its own cool currency called Korunas (Crowns). $1 US dollar equals about 22 Kournas. You think great! You can live like a king.  But, your average diet coke costs you about 22 Korunas, or sometimes 50 in the touristy areas.  You do that math.  That means a diet coke costs $1-$2 US dollars.  No big savings there.  The Euro gets about 28 Kournas. Goodie for them.  Don’t expect to save any real money in this not so Eastern European city.  The city was beautiful like that of Paris and and very touristy with tons of tourists and  people, not to mention the gobs of Japanese tourist groups even in late October.  Overall it was just too crowed even late at night.

The St.  Charles bridge is called that because King Charles IV commissioned it.   There are lots of statues on either side of the bridge.  The most famous was some sainted priest dude named John that would NOT tell the naughty confessions of the Queen to the King.  So, the King had him tortured, hung and then tossed off the Charles Bridge. Then, the miracle happened!  Ahhhhhhh!   Five glowing stars emerged from his head and floated up to the heavens.  That is how you become a saint.   Easy huh?

Now birds just pooh on him and his other saintly friends chill’n on the bridge.  Our time was limited, so basically all I did was drink with my friend Lenny and see the bridge. I also walked around, but not into the castle.  I also saw some God awful black light show called Aspects of Alice.  You can read Becky’s blog more for the terror of the play.  

Tags: bird pooh,Chalres Bridge,Prague
Categories: Chris Blogs, Prague
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The best part about Prague, by far, was seeing my old childhood friend Lenny a.k.a. Leo. He is in the process of moving here to start up a new and exciting business. Seeing him brought many memories back from the past. Playing role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, not to mention a few hours of Old Nintendo games like R.C. Pro-Am. It a was little racing game where you raced with remote control cars that could attack the competition. We played for hours on end. One time Lenny played it straight for 5 or 6 hours collecting the letters that spelled “NINTENDO” multiple times and the game race tracks started to repeat themselves.. There is no ending! Evil!! But I digress.

Of course there are all those memories of growing up that happen in high-school. They range from girls, to parties and bonfires, to heading off to that scary exciting thing called college. One of the strongest memories I have with Lenny is when we both volunteered to be away from home for weeks at a time for the first time in our lives. Imagine not having any parental units looking over you. I am talking about Camp Millhouse, in South Bend, Indiana, for mentally handicapped children. It was not until a few years later that the the more PC term “special needs” children came out. It was the year of 1989, the summer of 8th grade, at the tender age of 13 & 14. The next school year we would move from grade school, at Schumker, to the big new multi-million dollar mega-size Penn high-school across the street. It was an awakening age, that time of growth, on many levels.

We came to the summer camp as counselors in training, or C.I.T’S, and volunteered on and off for several weeks that first summer and in later years. One summer Lenny got away from his challenging family and became a full time camp counselor. We changed diapers on adults, fed kids who had no ability to feed themselves, met amazing people, not to mention girls. It was a time of many firsts. First make-outs and even more, like discovery of those yummy girl bits. There is so much that I could write tomes on it.

That experience led me to become a full-time camp counselor. I taught arts & crafts at various camps during the summer months while I attended university. In 1994 & 1995, I was at a YMCA in California and in 2000 I was at an “at-risk” youth camp in Michigan.

It was great seeing Lenny and hearing about all the things he has accomplished in his life so far. He was a great host showing us all around. We even got to meet some of his new friends. He and I got pretty drunk one night and saw some cool old bars in dark spaces and in under ground vaults. We both wished we had more time to hang out. We both made comments while in the states that we rarely visited each other and yet here we were in Prague on the other side of the world and we had made the time. Isn’t life funny that way?

Tags: Astronomical Clock,Chris,Lenny,nintendo,Prague,R.C. Pro-Am
Categories: Chris Blogs, Prague
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We finally left our womb of Julie’s apartment in Germany and trained it to Prague in the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. I was nervous about another language that I did not know, but excited to see a more “Eastern European” city. Chris was also excited to see a long time friend of his, Leo A.K.A Lenny, who is currently in the process of relocating to Prague for a new exciting business opportunity. The train to Prague was about 8 hours and went as quick as possible, but it dropped us off in Prague after alot of attractions were already closed. The picture to the left is in Czech and it’s translation is at the bottom of it. It seems a bit more hostile than what the U.S. writes on their cigarette containers, yet people over here still smoke like chimneys,

Our hostel, Art Prison Hostel, is worth mentioning because it was a former prison. There were bars on the windows and in the halls. The door to our room had a little slot where in the past food was passed through to the convicts and another little door so the guards could look in to make sure that the prisoners were not up to no good. I of course had to photo Chris in “jail”. Doesn’t he look vicious! He looks like a “lifer” to me.

After checking in and getting our bearings we met up with Leo to go see a few sights at night before heading off to dinner and then after that meeting up with some of his friends at a couple bars. One of our first stops was the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square. It keeps several versions of time, Bohemian (which I really didn’t understand) and Modern (with the Roman numerals). It was built originally in the 15th century but was repaired after being heavily damaged in WWII. At the strike of the hour a skeleton on the side rings a bell and then the windows on the top open and 12 apostles parade by and after that the hour is rung. A bit overrated if you ask me, but it was fun to see all the tourists gawking at it.

After that went to Charles Bridge. It was commissioned by Charles IV in 1357 and until 1850 it was Prague’s only bridge crossing the river. It is lined by huge statues of saints and biblical scenes that were later added as Jesuit “propaganda” during the Counter-Reformation. As it is a pedestrian only bridge, there are hoards of people everywhere milling about and an equal amount of folks trying to sell you something. But, lit up at night, it offered almost magical views of the city, the river, and the bridge itself. I am always a sucker for night lights.

Next on the agenda was a great Czech meal with red cabbage and two types of dumplings (yummy) and then after that out to a couple bars for various liquors. We met up with some Ex-Pats and one Canadian with dual Czech citizenship. We had a great time drinking the night away with Czech liquor. Perhaps too much of a good time. When I took this photo, it looked like it was in perfect focus. LOL. Oh how liquor can cloud the senses.

Tags: Art Prison Hostel,Astronomical Clock,Bohemia,Charles Bridge,Czech liquor,Czech Meal,Czech Republic,Friends,Lenny,Leo,Old Town Square,Prague
Categories: Becky Blogs, Prague
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