Praguenosis...

Dear All,
Well I am still in Prague but I am pondering my next course of action. I am supposed to return to Paris by Tuesday, July 25th to catch my flight back to the States. While I am in no rush to return to the States, I would like to see Nicole. Such is life though, and until we find gainful employment in Europe, I guess visits will be the modus operandi. That being said, I think I want to try and make it to Berlin for a day before I try and make it back to Paris. When I secured my train pass I gave myself an extra day, a just in case day, but I was able to travel from Paris to Prague on one day of pass so now I have three full days to return to Paris even though it should only take 2 at the most. Anyway, that is my current quandary...we'll see how it turns out.
Moving on to my continued Prague adventures. My life here has been relaxing all in all. My friend Dan studies, I wander the city, walking endlessly and eating neat Prague fare. Okay, I have had a lot of goulash since I have been here. It is good and it is classic Czech food. In addition to the goulash I have also had potato pancakes. The potato pancakes are really good. I had one the other day that could have fed me for four days. It was like a giant hasbrown filled with sauerkraut and bacon. It is a heart stopper, but it was only like $3 total, amazing. I have also had kielbasa and other various types of sausage and sauerkraut as well as dumplings...lots of dumplings. All in all it is easy to eat here. While Prague and the Czech Republic are not known for food, I have to say the food has been really good. It seems that the meals are based on filling a pot with stuff and then cooking and serving. It is my kind of dining.
I have had a few good adventures as well. I really explored the Prague Castle. I must say that St. Vitus Cathedral is amazing and beautiful. Iguess I can identify with a Cathedral named after a Sicilian Saint...so much heritage on this trip. I was fortunate in the Prague Castle, I followed a few tour groups around, a couple of British groups as well as a Spanish group (I could understand some of the tour at least...okay just a little but I like testing myself). Anyway though the Prague Castle was nice to visit although it really doesn't seem like a Castle, it is more like a Palace.
That being said, I went to a Castle on Wednesday. I visited the Karlstejn Castle. The Karlstejn Castle is just outside of Prague. There was another castle further away but I only went to Karlstejn, very nice and very impressive. It was built in the early 1300s and definitely felt like a castle, it was great. It was surrounded by hills and look like something right out of the middle ages, very cool. In addition on the street up to the castle there were lots of shops and vendors. The prices were much lower than in Prague and the people were friendlier. I actually had a nice conversation with a girl in the Moravian wine store. She was from an adjacent town and was really nice. She had spent some time in the States, one month in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was curious about why I was there. All in all one fo the nicer conversations I have had with a locale. On an interesting footnote, she was annoyed with many of the local shopkeepers because many of them were Russian and were selling definitely Russian things...think Cossack Hats. Anyway, I had heard that the Czech's harbor bad blood toward foreigners in general and Russians in particular, and this kind of re-affirmed that understanding. Anyway, the Karlstejn Castle was beautiful and worth the visit. It was nice to get outside of the city and actually see a real castle. Although, since there are several hundred castles in the Czech Republic, after awhile I think seeing castles would get very old. It was fun though to get a chance to see a stereotypical castle though.
Yesterday, my adventures took me to the Communism Museum (or what should be called the anti-communism museum). Oh my, this museum was dripping with irony. First of all, it is in one of the most commercial districts of Prague...not far from Wenceslas Square. Getting even funnier, the museum is directly above a McDonalds, even sharing signage with the McDonalds. Then, as you walk in to go to the museum there is a sign that says museum to the left and casino to the right. The museum is next to a casino...I was laughing. Needless to say I took pictures of the things that struck me as ironic. Finally, I went into the museum and the fee was the highest I have paid for a museum here in Prague. I even tried to use my International Student ID card in order to get a slight discount, they had none of it because it said Teacher on the card (quite the capitalists at the communism museum). Anyway, the museum itself was incredibly negative toward communism. I found it humorous that they talked so negatively of communist propaganda while using propaganda to promote the counter position. I was also pretty frustrated by the portrayal of Marx. There is nothing I find more frustrating than a group that has clearly never read Marx claiming that Marx stood for or believed something that not Marx never once stated or supported. Anyway, after these seemingly insurmountable flaws, I actually found the museum informative. Once you get past the counter-propaganda, the film footage, pictures, objects, and displays were pretty good. I actually spent several hours there. If taken with a very large grain of salt, the Communism Museum is worth the stop.
Okay, well those are my latest adventures here in Prague. Just as the city is growing on me I am going to leave. I will either be leaving tomorrow or Sunday. Since this may be my last message until I return to the States let me just wish everyone, everywhere, well. Take care.
Justin