Having a Praha Moment

Hello again everyone! My my my... it's been awhile since we really sat down and chatted. So how are you? How are the kids/significant other/family/pets/weather/sporting teams/whatever you value in life? Uh huh....uh huh...I'm listening....uh huh...oh, I see...interesting. Wow!!! You've had a lot happen while I've been sucked away into my European vortex here. We'll have to catch up more when I'm back across the pond, especially about "you know what." That's some real juicy gossip you've got there!!! Wooo!

This past week has been rather hectic for me and Eric with all the travelling around and sightseeing. And the blog has reflected that with the minimal lack of postings. But we're finally in a place where we've got some breathing room and can slow down once again: Praha, a.k.a. Prague. Prague is a beautiful place, with a nice winding river, beautiful people, and...

What's that you say??? Did I skip over some important details, like how I suddenly went from Paris to Prague in a heartbeat? Huh...you're right. I guess that does seem a bit odd. Now that I think about it, how the heck did I get here after all? This wasn't at all part of the original plan. I was supposed to be in Greece or Turkey by now. What hapened???

First, let's go into the Way-Way-Back Machine with Mr. Peabody and Sherman here to fill you in on some of the random stuff that occurred in Paris. As I mentioned earlier, Paris is a great city in my opinion. I know I saw it from a tourist's perspective, and the outskirts are supposed to be bad and the city is supposed to be having major racial tensions right now...but from what I saw, I thought it was a top-notch city. It wasn't dirty or smelled like cigarettes or had nasty rude people like people have been telling me over the years. Paris reminded me in a lot of ways like my fair city of Chicago, except a lot more spread out and minus a giant lake. I just enjoyed the vibe there, walking around and seeing cool things everywhere I turned.

On our first day, after nearly being crushed by the swarms of people at Le Tour de France, we ambled down the Champs-Elysees (the main drag in Paris where all the big events over its history have occurred. Check out all the film footage from WWII and the armies/parades are always marching down this street. One end of the Champs-Elysees is now like a Michigan Avenue with all the big shopping stores) and saw the Arc d´Triumph. We then went over to Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) and tried to go up, but a security guard busted me for carrying dangerous items in my backpack, such as a pocket knife and a jar of peanut butter. I'm still trying to figure out how a jar of peanut butter poses a national security threat to France. Maybe they see it as encroaching upon their Nutella market here. Come to think about it, finding peanut butter in France is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It doesn't exist. We had to find an Arabic grocery store to locate a jar. But man, I didn't realize how much I missed that stuff until I had a peanut butter sandwich again. Wow...great stuff. It's the simple pleasures in life that you somehow miss.

So we didn't get to go up the Tower...at least not right off the bat. Two days later after seeing the long queue at the Musee d´Orsay, we headed back over to the Tower sans peanut butter and WERE able to climb up it. And I'm so glad I did. That was a real highlight on this trip, and I didn't expect it to be as cool as it was. We climbed the stairs up to the first and second levels, and even from there you could get an awesome view of the entire city. We didn't feel the need to pay the extra Euro to ride the elevator to the tippy-top to see a slightly higher perspective of Paris...the second level was sufficient enough. They had a Ben and Jerry's ice cream stand up in the Eiffel Tower, and I noticed how Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream wasn't there (while Cherry Garcia was, along with some weird Max Haveland character I've never heard of before), which I consider a major travesty especially since we helped liberate France from the Nazis. I think I'll write Stephen Colbert when I get back to the U.S. and let him know about this so he can take prompt action to fix this issue. I think I met more Americans up in the Eiffel Tower than anyplace else we've been to here in Europe. It felt like an American embassy in some ways, and what American embassy doesn't have the proper ice cream?

The Louvre had some great stuff, but it was overrated in my opinion. We only had three hours to spend there before they shooed us out. With 15 minutes to spare at the end, we saw Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa, which didn't do too much for me. The David in Florence, Italy impacted me. Mona Lisa...not so much. Maybe if I could have gotten closer instead of being stuck 15 feet behind the velvet rope and having to view it through 3 panes of security glass I would have liked it more. The real art museum that WAS worth it, in my opinion, was the Orsay. We spent 4 hours there, and I saw paintings I never would have expected, like Whistler's Mother, Van Gogh's famous self-portrait (of the 100's he did), and several Monet and Renoir paintings. Great stuff all around. Totally worth it.

We took a short train ride out to the Palace of Versailles to see that, since that is another thing you're supposed to do when you visit France. We only had an hour to see the Grand Apartments there since they closed at 6 pm (with France's 35 hour work week, nothing is open late, which blows if you're a tourist). And France doubled the prices of Versailles within the past few months, just because they knew they had you in their tight little grip. I wasn't too happy with that. So we saw King Louie XIV's enormous moment to himself. The palace was beautiful and ornate, but with all the Asian tourists being herded around while we were there, it turned into a traffic jam and wasn't very enjoyable. We then went outside and walked the entire 5.5 km around the big lake/canal in the gardens outside. Felt like being at the Washington Mall, except with nicer grass. Just a big, rectangular pond that seemed to go on and on forever. Overall, I'm glad I went to Versailles since it is a historical place, but it way too overrated.

The hotel we were staying at, Hotel de Cozy, was a cheapie hotel with a crazy staircase we had to climb up every day to get to our room. They had linoleum with a wood grain pattern that was printed slightly off-register, so if you put on some 3-D glasses, it would probably pop out at you and poke you in the eye. But like the name, it was a cosy little hotel, and our next-door neighbors could totally vouch for that with all the groaning and bed spring action coming from next door. For the first time this trip, we had televisions in our room, so like nerds we tuned in religiously to CNN to catch up on world events, like the bridge disaster in Minnesota...and the bridge disaster in Minnesota...and the bridge disaster in Minnesota. Yep. Looks like we're all caught up on world events.

We left Paris on Thursday and headed on a train to Bayeux, which is in Normandy. Bayeux is a cute little town overrun with Brits, Americans and Canadians, and rightfully so since Normandy is a pilgrimage site for these three countries because of the events of D-Day. We hired (rented) bikes the next day and rode out to the beaches of Normandy to check out the cemeteries and battle sites. We went to the British Gold Beach first, ate a sandwich, then cycled through the cow pastures and rolling plains of grain and corn (beautiful stuff...just beautiful) to get to Normandy American National Cemetery, where all the soldiers who died at Omaha Beach were buried. I knew I'd get all choked up at this place, and sure enough, inside the Visitor's Center, within a minute of hearing the patriotic music and seeing the video of people sacrificing themselves for their fellow soldiers, I got all teary and choked up. It's like the guy's equivalent of watching a sappy love movie...it just makes you crumble seeing all this.

So, after gaining my composure again, we went out to the cemetery to see the rows and rows of crosses and Stars of David, which just stretches on for awhile. We then walked down to Omaha Beach, which is just a nice, serene beach now with no evidence that the bloodiest fight in history was fought here. We then jumped on our bikes and rode back past the small churches and villages to Bayeux to have some crepes and reflect upon our day. I honestly believe that as Americans, we should all be required to visit Normandy and see the cemetery there. It makes you realize what sacrifice is all about, and how lucky you are to be an American and living in a country that is free. It's a moving experience, and I'm very glad I went off the beaten path and made the journey to see it.

After Normandy, we took a train back to Paris and then went on a never-ending 16 hour bus ride into Prague, because, hey, why not? It's Prague! So here we are now, enjoying the sights, the cheap beer, and taking a few days to decompress after the whirlwind week we just had.

Time to go again...the people at the Boathouse Hostel I staying at are eager to push me off this computer since I type for so long. "Czech" out the blog in a few days and I'll give you the low-down on Prague and let you know what's going on here. Peace.