A free peek into the famous jewish cemetery
Yep, 2 figures peeing
One of many interesting door knockers in the city
Unique figures on each small block used for postal purposes
Monday, Aug 29.
It's a public holiday today in slovakia so we had the day off hence my decision to stay another day, sweet!
I thought prague was a great place to sign up for a photo tour. My guide tomas was a local but has lived and worked in nyc. He took me places that were away from the main tourist sites. It's fine with me since I've already seen the touristy places the days before. I've discovered that prague has many courtyards that connects one street to another. You can criss cross your way around town without having to be on the main (and crowded) streets. It was very nice because tomas was very enthusiastic about showing me his favorite of the city.
I remember asking gary how he remembered prague when he was there years ago. He told me that it was a nice city but there was a mixture of dark with light, new and old. He was there after he finished college. When I mentioned this to Tomas he said that made sense because it was soon after the revolution. During the german and russian occupation the city was left in disrepair. The streets themselves it not have much lighting so it was dark at night. Also in the 80's their was a period of acid rain which put a soot type of coating on the buildings, making everything look old and depressing. But over the last 15+ years the city went through a transformation so that it's become one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Even my german colleagues told me this.
Tomas told me that prague, vienna, budapest, bratislava are all siblings meaning they shared a lot of history. Even bratislava and prague was part of the same country before 1990. He was proud to say that czech was the more industrial part of the country while slovakia was more dependent on agriculture. Over the years after the split, it was czech that got rich and successful while slovakia became the poorer neighbor.
One funny moment was when tomas took me to a small quiet courtyard with the 2 copper figures peeing as the top part of their body rotates. They are peeing into a small pool that was made into the shape of slovakia. How mean! What's funnier is watching people's reaction as they pass by and realize what they were looking at! Tomas insisted I took 2 pictures to prove to gary that they were moving. So I got 2 pictures of these 2 peeing, very nice!
After our tour tomas invited me for a quick lunch at his favorite "fast food" place, the Bohemian Bagel. It's a very popular place where you can get bagel sandwiches. They boil the bagels (similar to ny bagels?) and not baked. It was really good!
Tomas is a young photographer who got his start in nyc. After 4 years he realized he didn't like the fast track and decided to do weddings locally. Because of his past connections he's made a nice name for himself and only does upscale weddings. What's so great is that he only needs to work during the summer season and travels the rest of the year. He described to me some of the living conditions of the country. All is paid for you (medical care, education, etc) but your salary is very low. It's controlled by the state so even a doctor does not make that much. If you become a doctor your motivation is not money.
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