Prague, Czech Republic – 07/31 – 08/01

(Michelle) For the more recent history, we went to the Museum of Communism. They had a lot of propaganda posters on one side and on the other there was information about revolts. Two students burned themselves to death in 1969 in protest of the Soviet invasion (both named Jan). We have recently met a journalist from the Czech Republic who speaks Russian. TJ asked him when he started learning Russian… Of course, before 1989, Russian was a mandatory language to learn as a small child in school.
We saw some other churches and old buildings (very pretty). TJ especially likes the statues in St. Nicholas Church, where there is a lot of attacking with spears.
I tried some traditional Czech food – Potato dumplings surrounded by pork, onions and cabbage.
As we were walking around “new town” (new town was started in the 1300s), we had some spare time and noticed a sign for an exhibit on Chicago (???). It only cost $1 so we went in. It turned out to be a photographic exhibit (by I think her name was Teri Evans?) that I have seen before in Millenium park (and the photographer spoke at one of TPs client events). So that was an odd coincidence. We saw one other person in the exhibit and she was also from Chicago, so I am wondering if they are getting a lot of NON Chicago people in there???
To get a taste of the nightlife, we once again opted for a pub crawl. At first it seemed pretty small (15 people) and we wondered who we would hang out with (the one in Berlin was like 60 people). Then these three guys from Shetland, Scotland asked to sit at our table and we became instant friends. They were so funny and really nice. They still hung out with us even after I asked… “Shetland… isn’t that where those midget ponies come from?” (the beer was talking). Our guide was this cheeseball from California who thought he was Ben Bratt. Since there were mostly dudes on the crawl, he decided to add a topless bar to the list. Thanks! The 5 of us eventually ended up splitting from the crawl. There are not many people on the island of Shetland, and 2 of the 3 guys were single, so I promised to push a Shetland vacation to my single girlfriends. :)

(TJ) Prague was definetly not as cheap as I remember it, unfortuntly the days of $5 dinner and drinks are long gone, it now costs $12 pp. I think we were there during the peak of the tourist season with tons of coach busses and Asian tour groups driven like cattle through the streets. It stills is an absolutely beautiful city with tons of character and a fairy tale skyline and should be a must see on any tour of Europe.