Sensuous Prague

Early morning jog

I went for a jog yesterday morning. In the little hotel where we are staying they do not expect you to leave early in the morning. I walked down the stairs from our room at about 7:15 a.m. into the “foyer” of the hotel. It was in complete darkness. At the front doors out to the street I tried unlocking them with the key that had been left in the lock and then attempted to figure the bolts. There was a groan on the couch behind me. I turned to discover the man who had been on duty at the desk the night before, bleary eyed, socks off, asleep on a couch, feet on a chair, guarding the door way. “You vaant out?” his said, while still partly asleep. “Yes” I replied. He got up and unbolted the door to let me out. I had planned out my run on the map and all went well until what I thought was a road I could use turned out to be a motorway with no footpath. I took off on another road in the direction I thought would get me to where I wanted to go. I went through some narrow streets, coming across some sex shop/massage type places and, I am sure, some prostitutes knocking off after a night working. (their attire advertised their wares and they were catching taxis and farewelling each other) Zig zagging through the streets I finally found the river and jogged beside it. Grassy areas were dotted with the bodies of homeless people of Prague still sleeping on the lawns. I thought it ironic that there was a big outdoor exhibition about looking after endangered animals of Europe, and dotted amongst the display boards the homeless were sleeping. Where the lawn sprinklers had started these folk were congregating around seats nearby. I ran through the streets passing people heading to work for the day. About an hour after I began, I reached my hotel still with its closed doors and sat outside watching the passing parade, until finally I knocked on the doors. There was yet another groan from the man inside who roused himself long enough to let me in.

Prague Buildings

Prague has untold old churches, many within spitting distance of each other. Apart from the cathedral in the castle, I have not been exploring these as many of my fellow tourists have. It has many ancient buildings, and towers and bridges dating back centuries. We explored one tower on our first day here, going in a lift to the second top floor and walking the steps to the top. It had been there for centuries. I looked at the massive great timbers, the wide tree trunk slab flooring boards and thought, “How did they lift them up here and put these in place?” There were no big motorised cranes back then? There was no easily erected scaffold such as we have today? Again as I looked at the incredibly high arch ways and detailed massive stained glass windows in the castle cathedral - how did they build these? I have been watching our controversial Dunedin Sports stadium being built and thought it was a pretty amazing project, but these building projects in their time make that child’s play! Some of them took generations to complete!

Prague is sensuous.

We have walked miles around Prague and this is how I would sum up our experience. The city area seems to glory in sumptuousness. (We have not explored suburbs etc. so do not really know Prague) On the top of the buildings there are figures of people. The bridges are adorned with statues. The churches have pictures and statues telling stories. There are painted pictures and decorative panels on the walls of buildings. The human form is displayed and enjoyed in so many of these statues, engravings and pictures. The people in the streets dress and move sensuously. (We are in the summer holiday season and in the “party” area of town) There is a light hearted air about the place. Buskers are enjoyed and clapped. The trumpeter at the famous astronomical clock who plays for about half a minute is applauded. There is laughter as girls pose for photographs in erotic poses beside naked statues. A graffiti wall has greetings, poems and sayings all over it. There is one place you can add a padlock to a fence. Couples will stop and kiss spontaneously and passionately in the street. There is music in the streets, heaps of concerts you can attend and an untold variety of eating/ drinking establishments. The city area seems to exude a sensuality and enjoyment of life.

Lost in Prague

We have enjoyed walking around the streets and “sites to visit” in Prague. Yesterday was a hot day and we started walking at 9:30 a.m. and got back to our hotel room absolutely exhausted at around 9 p.m. We got gloriously lost a couple of times but walked our way out of it and discovered new places. Our evening meal was enjoyed in a new shopping mall we discovered by accident. After that we thought we were headed home, but walked miles in the opposite direction from our hotel. When we finally found out where we were and worked our way back to our hotel, we decided we needed a drink before going up. Beside our hotel is an eating place advertising “Cheap Traditional Czech Beer”. Exhausted from our hot day walking, I walked in and said, “We just need two big cold beers”. We sat sipping them while watching sensuous music videos on the big screen. As we left and paid for our drinks, the barman asked, “Good beer?” “Nice beer,” I replied, “Very enjoyable.” He turned and gestured toward a good looking young lady leaning against the wall with twinkling eyes and a beautiful smile. “This is my wife.” he said proudly with a big grin. (“Isn’t she gorgeous?” seemed to be implied.) I just nodded at her and said “hello” as she grinned even more warmly. It was a nice warm human encounter at the end of a hot day and seemed to sum up our experience.

Photos:

* I don't usually go around taking photos of unrinals. This was a free WC in a shopping mall we had dinner in. They had these pics of women at each stall responding to what they were seeing. I had to take a picture.

* We found this statue in an overgrown Church yard. I could just picture it in the St Andrew Street Church of Christ car park??