Do they have tortillas in Poland?: Czech, please!

If I said to you "I live in Prague, will you come visit me?" would your answer be different than it is when I say "I live in Warsaw, will you come visit me?"? Maybe you shouldn't answer that question. And instead, you should just come visit me. Prague is a beautiful city, and I have a lot of fun everytime I am there. But to be honest, I think I enjoy Warsaw more than I'd enjoy living in Prague. But let's not get into that right now.

Over the past couple months, I have been to Prague 3 times (twice for work and once for fun). Each time I have had 3 main goals: catch up with some friends, take in the city, and find some goulash and Czech beer.

There were some good times, such as the unexpected fireworks on the river, and a street party in the suburbs hosted by some friends that we just met (Pavla and Martin). There were also some not-so-great times, like when a piece of chocolate melted in my shirt pocket while I was at work, giving me a poop brown stain on my chest, getting locked in a fire escape with no shirt on (yea, it's related), and waking up on a tram by myself in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere.

I also lost my camera for a short time, so my pictures for the past few trips are limited...but luckily the through the teamwork of a couple friends in Prague, I was able to get it back fairly quickly.

Anyway, back to my goals. It was great to catch up with some friends in Prague, both old and new. There were dinners, parties, sightseeing, and just wandering around the city. When Sherry (SF) and Jess (Houston) came to visit me, we went to Prague for Easter weekend, and we met with Alena and Irina (friends from Warsaw), and Mike (an American who is nearing the end of 19 months around the world - seriously, he hasn't been home since October 2009!!).

We met up with some other friends in the city, and it was a good time, as always.

Me and the international girls - Sherry (US), Zuzka (Czech), Irina (Latvia), and Alena (Russia)

The tradition on Easter Monday is for the guys to smack girls with a stick. They even sell the smacking sticks in stores (really!)

Jessica's boyfriend Drew also came on the trip. He was so nice to cook for us

We did quite a bit of walking around the city, spending a lot of time in the Old Town Square, or near/on the river. It's a beautiful scene, night and day:

The Astronomical clock in the Old Town Square

Taking a boat cruise

Charles Bridge in the day

At dusk

And at night

There are also a couple very significant, historical spots in the city that I found interesting. One is the spot in Wenceslas Square where some Czech students burned themselves in protest of the Soviet occupation just at the time when (then) Czechoslovakia was attempting to liberalize. The first student burned himself in 1968, and during the funeral, another student did it. A year later, this was repeated by a third. All this was 20 years before the Velvet Revolution, which peacefully ended the Communist rule in 1989. You can't help but wonder what kind of impact those deaths had on raising awareness and opening the eyes of people in the country. To a certain extent, this kind of protest happens around the world all of the time. Sometimes it just takes us a while to realize the motivation.

The memorial spot where the Czech students burned themselves in protest

Another interesting spot is the Lennon Wall. This wall started as some graffiti where people shared grievances about Communism and the world in general, through John Lennon-inspired images and Beatles lyrics. Officials tried to cover up the graffiti, but new stuff would pop up overnight. Now it's allowed, and people write on it every day, with messages about love, peace, and happiness. Each time I have visited the wall, it looks different, but it is always inspring.