grown without schooling: Czech

Prague, Czech Republic. Our finial destination. I feel like if we would have gone to Prague at any other point in the trip, we would have had a completely different impression. And as it was, we still really liked it. But coming from Olomouc where we had such a personal connection with the town and felt like it was ours to discover, to a huge tourist destination that had to live up to all the things we heard Prague was, we were a little disappointed. It's not that it had more signs in English or kitsch than any large Western European city does, it's just that we weren't in the mood for it. It also didn't help that our first experience there involved getting totally scammed by the taxi driver (two heavy accordions = need for taxi), and then checking in to a huge, impersonal hostel (Eloise, at our last hostel, had done our laundry for us while we were out and left it hanging in our room. aw). So for our night in Prague we decided to ditch Lonely Planet, and just go with our gut instinct. Apparently our gut instinct is very similar to that of a toddler or a moth: We were attracted to the places with the flashiest lights and prettiest colors. And the places that just seemed the most ridiculous. So maybe this wasn't giving Prague a chance to show us its best side, but really, how often do you get to go to a restaurant and a bar in the same night that both have beds in them?

I already showed some pictures of Fragola in the section about food, but as a reminder, here is the queen sized bed that was right next to our table. So silly. And here is a little video I took of the place:

After that experience, the only thing we could do was to go to the very most ridiculous place we could find: Bed Lounge. You've really got to watch the video to get a feel for what this place was all about. Be sure to notice: the completely white interior with gradually changing colored lights, the TV screens with screensaver like videos of digital fish, and of course all the people lounging on the bed. The video is not very good because I'm trying to be sneaky, but it gets the point across.

The couples on the bed looked so awkward and uncomfortable. It was all extremely unnatural and posed. Plus you had to take off your shoes, so that made it funny. It was, to say the least, ridiculous. We just sat there and judged everyone for a while, until we decided we should leave and make better use of our lives.

Prague is famous for its marionettes and puppets. Pinky hates marionettes and puppets.

The next day we went to go check out the gay district in Prague, which is apparently world renown. With the help of Lonely Planet and Pinky using a mixture of intuition and logic, we walked around ALL DAY, and didn't find so much as a tastefully decorated trashcan. It was really tumbleweed-blowing-down-the-street style empty. We were where Lonely Planet told us to go (what they called "the funky part of town"), but apart from Warsaw it was probably the least funky place we had been. But we don't think it was Prague's fault. We think the person who wrote the Prague section of our book was just l@me. So instead of eating at some trendy, hipster, Sunday brunch/pub kind of place like we were imagining, we ate at the worst, tackiest "Mexican" restaurant I've even seen. As Pinky put it, it was straight out of central Ohio.

And that there folks, was the last meal of our trip.

Then we got on a plane to Frankfurt (which was no easy feat with two accordions). Sitting next to us on the plane was a Czech film director! It was so exciting. I got to talk to her all about my love of Czech movies. She gave us her business card and said to connect her the next time we come back to Prague and she would help us find the good places to go.

Then we sat in the Frankfurt airport from 11:30pm until 10:30am. That was not so much fun.

People sleeping on the tables of the closed security checkpoint.

Pinky sleeping on the floor. I swear the floor cleaning zamboni lady ran over his pant-leg and he didn't even stir.

And finally, 8 days, 6 countries, and 2 accordions later, we arrive back in the icy land of Finland. I would say that's an extremely successful Modern Odyssey.

That was the end of the road for me, but poor Pinky still had two days of travel ahead of him. And this time he would have to carry the accordions all on his own.

Olomouc is a town in the eastern part of the Czech Republic. It was the Moravian capital from the 12th to the 18th centuries, so it's full of history but relatively undiscovered by tourists. We completely fell in love with it.

This is a brass model of Olomouc in the town square.

And this was our wonderfully amazing hostel we had all to ourselves.

If I hadn't loved the town so much I think I would have just stayed here all day, drinking tea and reading.

According to the locals, this is the tallest column in Eastern Europe. While I couldn't find that cited anywhere, it is listed as #1 on the website World's Most Historic and Notable Columns.

It has a replica of a cannon ball that was shot into it during a Persian attack, which is cool.

Every time you go around a bend in this town, you come upon an amazing statue or fountain. There were so many of them and they were all very detailed and unique.

This copper series was my favorite:

Check (Czech) out that detail:

I had no idea these people even noticed I was taking a picture. That's kind of awkward.

My other favorite thing in the town square was the Astronomical Clock. It keeps time of every imaginable type.

It was remodeled in communist style so that workers now take the place of the saints.

It even had a clock showing the current position of the astrological signs and houses, etc.

I loved it.

The highlight of the clock is at noon when it rings. We had been told we had to see it, but we could sense a slight sarcasm when this was said, so we didn't get our hopes too high. But that isn't to say we didn't run (well, I kind of did a fast hobble. The hip is good, but not that good) the last couple blocks at 11:59. We got there just in time. And this is what we saw:

At this point I cut the video off, and I'm glad I did as it went on like that for at least five (although it felt like 30) more minutes. But don't worry! I still caught the finale!

Well. How do you top an experience like that? I guess you can always go look at some more fountains.

Poseidon

Hercules

Sausage anyone?

Pinky and his Trabant (the East German, two-stroke engine, plastic frame car)

"Hmm, what are we going to use to build our new road?" "There are some rocks down at the river. Let's use those." "Okay."

"I live in apartment building number 7. Just come on in the front door."

The ironwork everywhere in this town was AMAZING.

We had lunch one day in a restaurant where some Slovakian guys were eating. And since Pinky makes friends everywhere he goes, they were soon talking to us (although only one of them kind of spoke English).

We figured out after awhile that they were collectors and they were all there going through and comparing their collections of postcards from their hometown Bratislava. Our main friend (pictured below) kept trying to give Pinky money so he could get a new pair of pants that didn't have holes in the knees. They were having a good time.

I loved the roads.

And now, we come to the main story from Olomouc.

Pinky had had his heart set on getting a concertina in Romania, but since we didn't end up going there, he decided he wanted to get one in a little town in the Czech Republic instead. We asked our lovely hostel hostess, Eloise, if she knew where we could find one, and she pointed us towards a music shop. We asked them if they had any accordions (they didn't speak English, but luckily "accordion" is a very easy thing to pantomime). They said no, but circled a spot on our map and we headed off again. Their directions brought us to this little residential side street on the edge of the town square. Pinky was getting very excited.

And then we saw it - the perfect little accordion shop. The craved wooden accordion player in the window even had a handlebar mustache.

But we tried the door... and it was locked.

We interpreted the sign as saying that Monday through Friday they were open until either 12:00 or 6:00. And at that moment it was about 3:00 on Friday. The next time they would be open again was 1:00 on Monday. And we had a flight out of Prague on Sunday.

Pinky was devastated.

What else can you do in a situation like this but find a bar down a little ally and get a beer.

(Which had a sod roof!)

We showed the bartender what the sign had said, and she confirmed that those were indeed the shop hours.

Sadness.

But cute little bar puppy!

Before we went back to the hostel that night, we walked back by the accordion shop. Pinky was convinced that the shopkeeper lived above the shop, and we should come back by tomorrow morning and see if we could get his attention. I wasn't so hot on the idea.

But nevertheless, we returned the next morning and rang the doorbell. Nothing. We rang it again. One of the windows on the top floor opened, and a man leaned out and asked us in Czech what we wanted. Pinky tried to tell him that he wanted to buy a concertina, but the guy just waved his hand, told us to wait a minute, and disappeared. We looked at each other, not knowing what was going on. A few moments later, he opened the front door and invited us inside. He had woken up his teenage daughter (who was still in her robe and slippers) so she could interpret for us. It turned out that it wasn't actually an accordion shop, but it was an accordion repair shop. And so the only accordions he had were broken. Pinky told him that was okay, that he could get it fixed back in the US (the guy could not believe that there were people who knew how to repair accordions in America). But he said he just didn't feel right selling something that was broken, so if we would come back in the afternoon, he would spend the rest of the day trying to repair them as best he could. I say "them" because Pinky decided to get two. This whole exchange took about an hour, during which time the mother came home from shopping and was very confused as to why there were strangers in her house on a Saturday morning. But they were all very, very nice.

Pinky was beside himself with joy. We tried to do some sightseeing that day, but all he could focus on was his new accordions. We went out and bought the family some flowers as well, since we had now taken up their entire Saturday.

When we went back at 4:00 it felt much more comfortable, since they were expecting us, and they were all dressed. This is the father demonstrating one of the accordions that Pinky bought: