Day 3 (9 Jun 2005): McDonald's meets Communism

The highlight of my day today was the Communist Museum in Prauge which gave better insight into a subject than almost any topical museum I've been to anywhere. What made the museum particularly fun to go to was that it was upstairs from one of the largest McDonald's I've ever seen and shared the floor of a building with a casino--probably not exactly what Marx was thinking.

The museum was just off Wenscalas Square which is where a number of the protests that brought about the end of Communism in the Czechlosovakia took place. The area is today one of the main area of modern Prague for shopping, fashion, and spending money. Its hardly distinguishable from parts of New York City and not perticularly exciting.

I spent the morning in the Old Town Square area, which had its charms and cool old buildings and a nice clocktower, but for some reason was the only place that most tourists went since I saw very few at the Prague Castle or in the Museum. It was almost difficult to enjoy the square because there were so many people around. Maybe its too difficult or scary for tourist-type people to venture across the river or beyond pedestrian only zones?

I had dinner of goulash and dumplings at the oldest pub in Prague which looks and seems like its out of a movie about Germany and it has all of the characteristics of a stereotypical German beerhall. Another fun fact of the day is that there is more than one Budweiser beer; in fact the Czech version brewed in the town of Budvar is much older and not surprisingly better tasting.

Later in the evening I followed some people from the hostel, one of whom had been in Prauge for several weeks to a pretty much locals only bar/club since it was in an out of the way part of town. It had to be one of the most interesting 'nightlife' spots I'd ever been with a maze of rooms and no sign outside and stairs that went into the basement of a building through what looked like an abandoned bus sitting in a random parking lot. The inside was decorated with old computer parts glued to the walls and ceilings and had predictable euro-style techno DJs.

Econ type question of the day: There is no checking tickets on public transportation and no turnstiles to go through here. It seems to work almost like an honor system; your supposed to buy a ticket and get it validated. Everyone seems to be buying the tickets and validating them, which I don't think would happen in the US. Actually on my way to the airport on the BART train from SF I saw a couple of people jumping turnstiles that are designed to stop people and make sure they pay. Why does this type of system seem to work here? Would it actually work in the US? Is there something about being trusted to be honest that makes people pay?

Day 2: Bohemian Beginning

Woke up this morning and took a long walk across Prague (the capital of the Czech Republic and the Bohemian region), since the hostel I'm staying in is in an out of the way neighborhood, Holesvince, that's being 'gentrified' (eg its full of old communist-style industrial buildings) some of which are being converted into apartments/lofts. Good news about it is other than guests at the hostel I'm staying in there are very few tourists around, so I got to walk through a cool, local Czech market on the way to Prague Castle which was my first destination.

I spent a lot more time at the Castle than I thought I would since it was probably the coolest one that I'd seen and had great views to the city from the tower Cathedral within its grounds, only 276 spiral steps up. The castle took up a lot more time than I thought it would, since its huge and there's a lot to see there. Many historical periods are evident in the architecure, the artifacts, or the many museums: 'Good King Wencelas' reign, the Austro-Hungarian empire's reign, Gen. Patton and the US Army's occupation, Communist leadership, and today it is the seat of the Czech president. A random fact about the castle is that a number of defenstartions occured there (or throwing people out of its windows to kill them, if you're not up on your St. Albans 10th grade vocabulary words.)

I spent the rest of the day wandering the streets on the 'left bank' of the Vlatava river in neighborhods that I thought were great as they were populated with small winding streets, big hills, and large baroque mansions. There was also a mountain bike race going up and down the cobblestone hills at higher speeds than seemed safe. To end the day, I crossed the famous Charles Bridge (featured in the opening scene of the movie Mission Impossible.)

Econ observation of the day: For a city where everything is so cheap (and not a relatively rich one) there's a high percentage of Audi A8s, their top of the line car, than any other city I've been to. Most cars, however, are Skodas which I have heard of before but not seen; these are the bottom-level cars manufactured by the Audi-Volkswagon company. The Skoda brand doesn't exist in the US. It seems strange to me that Audi-VW company has recently introduced the A3 in the US, but hasn't tried selling its low-end Skoda cars there if its really trying to reach a broader market.

Weird sights of the day: 1) guy's dog who was trained to carry around his pet white mouse on its back, 2) 'modern art' that featured two male foutains peeing that reached down and adjusted the angle of their streams, sometimes crossing them.

Day 0-1; Planes and Fish'n'Chips

Spent most of the first day flying from SF to London. My flight was full of recent high school graduates from a small town near Tahoe. A couple of them told me they hadn't left the state of California before. Its great that their teachers organized the trip for them.

Arriving at Heathrow, I took the Tube into the city and then to Victoria Station where I left my bag in left luggage. Shockingly it cost US$12 to store my luggage for five and a half hours since that's how long I had before I had to get on a train to Gatwick for my flight to Prauge.

Leaving Victoria Station, I found a takeout Fish'n'Chips place and then a nearby park. Not having looked at a map yet, I was surprised how similar to Washington the place seemed. Turns out the people next to me in the park, who I'd followed from the Fish'n'Chips place since they looked liked they knew what they were doing, worked for the British Treasury Department. In fact they were talking about the same types of international captial flows/ balance of payments issues that I worked on at the Fed. Small world.

Upon consultation with my map, I took a nice long walk to a bunch of London's major tourist spots: Parliment, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Thames, Picadily Cirucs, Buckingham Place, and Trafalgar Square.

After that more time on a train and then a plane to Prague that was rather uneventful. Getting lost on public transporation at 11:30 pm in Prague on the way to my hostel, however, was.

Countdown

I got my immunization shots yesterday at the San Francisco Health Dept. and I've bought travellers health insurance that includes an option to repariate my remains should that be necessary. So I should be good to go on the health front.

I'm also packed and down to less than 24 hours to departure! Three pairs of pants (one zips into shorts), two of shorts, 3 polo shirts, 2 t-shirts, 2 coolmax t-shirt, one long sleeve henley shirt, one button up shirt, a light rain coat, rain pants, a fleece, hiking boots, sneakers, 'dress shoes,' flip-flops, towel, sheet, sleeping bag, day pack, tickets/passport, camera, iPod, travel books for Europe only, tolietries, and lots of socks & underwear. Its amazing how all of that stuff is completely fills my backpack because it seems like very little to have for 3 months, especially since I won't be able to take on much that's new. I still need to get a cheap watch with an alarm to take with me though and shore up some last things before I leave the country.