Pragnosis: Positive

A quick note from the Czech Republic before we have to czech out of our hostel. Prague is the most beautiful city I have ever seen! Every building is at least lovely, many stunningly gorgeous with all kinds of funny architectural details (this trip makes me wish I knew more about architecture). In some ways this is the most touristy city we've visited. Everywhere we go, we're surrounded by tourists, and all the locals speak enough English for us to get by. And yet, I maintain that there is a real hometown Prague. We didn't necessarily find it in these three days, but I'd be open to living here for a year and testing out my hypothesis...

The boys and I (Olga and Lauren punked out after Berlin) all agreed on the first thing we wanted to see here in Prague: the Kafka Museum. It was a beautiful museum, but heavier on the mood/experience than factual information. Jason said it felt like it was curated by literary critics and installation artists. Having read very little Kafka, I had a huge emotional response to the museum. Jason, having read almost all of his work, was somewhat disappointed. Today we're going for the real experience: Kafka's grave and monument in the old Jewish quarter of town. That was the only museum we've visited. This is really a city for walking, taking in the beautiful sights, trying to make out the Czech language, eavesdropping on Russians and engaging them in conversation when we can. Tonight we're taking a midnight train to Vienna, so before that we'll try to see the puppet theater production of "Don Giovanni" and eat some more delicious Czech food.

This was a really good choice for our final destination, since it's a compromise between Europe and Russia. Czech is a Slavic language written in Latin letters; Prague is a tourist city, but a slightly sketchy Eastern European one. All in all, a perfeck trip.