Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Prague Day 2

Apparently the first thing to catch my eye on our second day in Prague was fast food. Probably because we spent the entire first day walking past closed fast food venues. Now open and featuring a surprisingly high quality looking array of sausages and vegetables.


Cheap classical was so good the previous day we decided to go for more.


Nearby Dvorak. Which is not pronounced the way you'd think. But you knew that already. You elitist bastard.


On a nearby street this caught our eye.


We wandered into yet another church. Specifically St Nicholas Church. They are all impressive but kind of self similar.


Can't go wrong with a pipe organ or a guy with gilded highlights.


Nearby the air was full of the smell of roasting meat. It doesn't matter how much of it you've had recently, the aroma *always* induces hunger. And it appears to be wood smoked! Based on the wood!


On of the Czech Republics greatest contributions to the world is the combined dark-light beer. Looks good, tastes good, it's all win. Although in Germany it'd come in a bigger mug.


They do a respectable Hefeweizen style brew as well.


Stern men with mustaches are big throughout Europe.


A beer seems lonely without food. For an appetizer, perhaps a plate of cheese and stuff to wet your appetite for roast meat!


Feast upon it's magnificence.


And with that it was time to cross the bridge.


Many a cheerful statue adorns the bridge.


Disaster...?


Sometimes the European instinct to castlify things runs to extremes. Like when you randomly throw a little battlement across a street.


In honor of witches evidently.


Every street is awesome.


We found our way to the waterside. It wasn't worth the effort when you get right down to it.


Near the Kafka museum is "art"


Inside the Kafka museum is boredom. It's essentially a bunch of whining about how Kafka was a whiner. Also the ticket lady is a horrible person.

And food.


Not sure what this means; perhaps we shall not pass?


Seriously *every* building is awesome.



If there is a hill there is a castle looking building on it.


Back on the Old Town Square side of the Vltava we found an absinthe merchant. He suggested we try the good stuff that makes you go blind and the like if you drink enough of it. A strange salespitch but effective.


The routine is to sip, savor, when the bad taste catches up sip water and eat chips, rinse, and repeat.


The burning of the sugar reduces the alcohol in the absinthe - which is good because it starts stupidly high - and imparts a nice surgery caramel flavor followed by a distinctly burnt aftertaste. When the aftertaste arrives it's time to sip water. Couldn't decide if I was taking a picture of Chris savoring absinthe or the awesome bike-sign.


This is exactly the kind of guy who walks up and takes a picture of you savoring your absinthe. Got him back in kind. Being got back in kind apparently made him uncomfortable and he left in a hurry.


Wasn't sure if this would make it through customs so we didn't buy any.


At this point, probably hallucinating from absinthe, it was time to find the classical show of the evening.


The stairs look promising but the rope across seems like a problem.


To our dismay everyone else at the show looked civilized. Shave damnit!


These guys, whose day job is being in a philharmonic, do shows on the side as well. Awesome shows. The best show we saw in fact, narrowly beating out Vienna.


The old chap is parent to all but one of the others. That one is "husband of daughter Eva." As an encore they played "plink", which is hand-plucked guitar style. It produces an entirely different sound, very cool.


The castle looked cool after the show.


Next we went to a dungeon for dinner.


The band played and food arrived. We learned Czechs do eat peppers but they de-spice them first. Tasty of course but not at all spicy. Really good with the lightly pickled cheese.


And the bread. Bread is so good in Europe.


Especially with sausages and horseradish. And potatoes mashed with ham. Because more meat is better, that's why.