Tourism in Prague
Since being in Prague, I've mainly been pretty sick. It's only been a few days now that I've actually been feeling a lot better. Yesterday, I was walking around Prague, walking back from an internet cafe, when I came across a lot of people milling around an area, and I discovered I was right in front of the Charles Bridge, a huge tourist site here.

So, I wandered across the bridge, and I was looking at all the different stuff people were selling, and what I thought was most interesting was almost everything being sold was crafted in some way or other. Oh sure, they were selling postcards and that kind of stuff, too, but everything else appeared to be skill-related. Some of the artists that create portraits of people in front of you were unbelievable. It probably didn't hurt that every woman in Prague appears to be a supermodel as well, but the work they were doing was phenomenal.

I wandered to the people's square, which is just huge, filled with churches. I went into one of the churches, and the amount of money that had to go into this place was nothing less than astronomical. The gold, the paintings on the walls, the paintings that stretched across the ceiling in a Michaelangelo style, were just breath-taking. They were about to have a concert in the church then, so I wandered off, but it was still unbelievable.

In the square, there are tons and tons of booths where people sell things they make (plus the usual touristee type of postcard and ceramic sales). There was one guy who was obviously a smith, as he was working on an anvil making impromptu artwork. Next to him was a stall that was selling old military helmets and axe-like weapons. There were several of those stalls next to each other, and I walked by one after another, kind of ignoring one of the stalls that was tucked in between two of the weapon and armor dealers. I then wandered back because I realized I hadn't even looked at what was selling there. That was when I noticed every product in this stall was of a similar nature. The woman was selling leather handcuffs, whips, restraints and all sorts of that kind of paraphenelia that was made by someone, not mass produced in some factory somewhere. I started thinking about this because with the fall of communism, it was just shocking to see something like this sold openly on the Prague market. I couldn't imagine it being sold on the open US market, unless in little stores where they hide it away and then probably give it to you in brown paper bags.

I wandered over to a small gazebo setting and ordered a beer, and then I sat down and drank it and watched the people walk by. Beer is really cheap here. I then wandered home and continued to work on my autobiography (something I started here when I first arrived and realized I was too sick to really go out and do anything). It's almost done, which to be honest was something I really had very little intention of ever writing. It's amazing how much of your life you remember when you sit down and start to write about it.

Stumble It!