day 64

hi from day 64.

we're hanging out at the really sweet Sir Toby's hostel in Prague and are flying to Milan, Italy in a couple hours.

this:
tons of snow and trudging this week. Vienna was great and we stayed with the folks from Subterrarium.  Subterrarium is a really nice venue in the basement of an old apartment building.  We walked through a really, really christmasy street market with this dude Sami and ate some decent-for-Europe burritos. Charlie was still feeling really sick and slept the entire next day and I took a walk and mostly took it easy at the apartment.  the next day we ate some pizza and took the student bus to Prague; they played a dippy time-traveling romance movie with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock then I thought some skinheads were going to board the bus in Brno, then we watched some Tom & Jerry cartoons followed by an Australian movie about infidelity and murder.  Weird mix.

man I really love Prague.  we arrived in the evening and the bus station was apparently quite near the venue.  But Prague is a fucking Bermuda labyrinth and we got lost and Charlie took refuge in a cafe while I got back into the snow to try to find the venue, then walk back to the cafe with a better idea of how to actually get to the venue.  of course I got really lost and ended up:
-walking over the train tracks at central station and into/out of the station
-walking on the highway(?)
-walking under the highway
-falling down
eventually i found the place (word up to club FINAL), awkwardly stood in the bar, then left to try to find the easiest way back to the cafe.  I got turned around really quickly and it took longer to get back to the cafe than the previous trip.  Charlie and I loaded up our bags on trudged back to the venue, which worked out relatively quickly.  Steppan is awesome.  I played with Munch Munch from London and they were really fun to watch.  After the show we took a tram back to Sir Toby's and slept.

The next day we went to look at a wacky old clock in the old town/tourist zone and climbed up a hill to a HUGE metronome.  the metronome is awesome, it just ticks back and forth and sounds really nice.  after that Charlie took a tram tour and I walked the hell out of Prague for some hours and saw a lot of nice buildings.  We met back up and made some dinner then I took to the streets again.  December 5th is Mikulas (aka Saint Nicholas' Eve) and, oh man, what a treat.  I watched some kid's singing Czech holiday songs while drinking hot mead in the old town.  Saint Nicholas looks like a hybrid of Santa Claus, the Pope and Little Bo Peep.  He is typically joined by an angel and a goat-devil who sometimes carries CHAINS. After watching some kids sing, a young boy stepped up to the mic and beat boxed.  Just when I thought it wasn't going to get any better, a goat-devil man crept up from the shadows and beat boxed pretty hard in the kid's face.  this is the truth.

Then I walked in the holiday snow for like 5 more hours, cruised way south of my map into Nudelska, walked along lots of folks walking their dogs and eventually found my way back to the hostel.

Last week of tour with Charlie, see you soon, Italy (aka my death by pesto)

-g