March 24th, 2015

A couple of articles to share from The Guardian this week.  First, from the 'it all makes sense now' file, the German language has an inordinate amount of sayings related to poop.  Over 3/4 of my gene pool is German, and even though I am 2-3 generations removed from it, this preoccupation with all things bowel related is strong.  I run the gamut of thinking that racial stereotyping is total BS, to it being able to predetermine all actions, but it is this kind of first hand anecdotal proof that gets me leaning towards nature.

Second, I came into the conversation around the water cooler towards the end, but this article about why white people are called expats and non-whites are called immigrants stirred a lot of passion.   Initially, thought it was a load of crap cause expat to me indicates a temporary thing, while immigrants seek to live in the second country permanently.  But when I thought twice about it, our cleaning lady is here to work, but I don't consider her an expat.  She is by definition an expat, but we don't view her such.  My initial thought was that expat is today's term for what we used to call Colonialists or Imperialists.  Just exerting influence in the world using cash instead of at the end of a musket.  Hmmm.  Then I see an article in the US that claims there is discrimination against Christians, a war on Christmas, or racism against whites and my head begins to throb.

Speaking of expats, who I will now refer to as migrants, I have lamented previously that the worst part of this life for me is the constant exodus of people out of the country.  The first two years were bad enough, but this year, am losing 4 out of 5 of my favorite dudes.  These are the fellas that I call when I want to have a cocktail, have a dinner date with the girls, or just to watch the game.  The dudes that accept me for my peculiarities...was having beers with one of them while our daughters had soccer practice the other night, and he brought another buddy from work who was "from Seattle".  We get introduced and I say to the friend's friend that I hear you are from Seattle?  He says, yeah...Gig Harbor.  I reply dismissively..."Gig Harbor?  That's not Seattle...that's like, Tacoma?"  He started to get defensive and our mutual friend just says, 'Ignore him, he loves to get under people's skin...just an asshole'.  See, totally understands that streak in me and turns it around.  Hard to develop that in short spaces that you have in the limited migrant labor shelf life.  Gonna miss those guys and expect they will stay as friends and that we will see them down the road, but especially as I have to start cultivating new relationships and that always starts out with having to be nice.  Interested in what they do, blah blah blah.  Was thinking about this when I received a link to this video about expat, oops, migrant friend circles...funny cause it's true.

At least I still have one chum sticking around.  An English fella that has a love of the Pittsburg Steelers.  Nuff said...  His profession is knowing everything about wine.  We arranged for him to teach a "class" last Saturday to help raise money for the local Community Center.  10 people comparing same wines grown in Old and New World environments and we hosted at our place.  As the guests were from the whole community and we only knew a couple of them slightly, we weren't sure how it would go, but after some initial uneasiness, once we got into the first wines, people livened up and we had a fine evening.  8 wines (4 comparisons) with a Port and dessert at the end.  My friend kept us enthralled all evening with his knowledge of wines and did so in a way that did not make anyone feel stupid about their own knowledge (and lack thereof).  Would do one of those monthly and think I just might arrange that as a rotating club next year.  Now just need to recruit enough quality folks to round out the members.

Carolyn turns 12 today (I forgot this morning...shame) and is in the 6th grade and she and her buddies have discovered boys.  Have listened to a lot of conversations about girls being upset with other ones as they both like the same boy, and how some girls keep two boys interested, keeping one on the "sidelines" but that he is still their "property".  I don't suspect that they have moved into any areas past the "liking" phase as I will probably stop hearing about this stuff altogether when that happens.  Am also happy we are here as the parents keep a pretty tight leash on their kids in these parts, but one thing that being involved with Chinese people does supply is the inadvertent awkward name.   One of Carolyn's buddies likes a boy named Willie Hung.   I am friends with that girls parents and we were talking about this over drinks the other night.  I asked the mom if she knew about this liking boys stuff and she did...then asked if she knew the name of the boy her daughter was supposedly fond of.  She rolled her eyes and said how that is going to be a lot of pressure on that poor kid. 

Just read this article in That's magazine (natch) about the 50 best retaurants in Asia.  Unsurprisingly, Taiwan only has one listed, and it is a French place in Taichung.  I did just make reservations for us for Thursday to eat at # 7 on the list...Nahm in Bangkok

We head out tomorrow for Spring break...Thailand for 10 days baby.  It has been number one on my wish list since the decision was made to come to this part of the world and am super excited.  Three nights in (what happens to the man who goes through the turnstile the wrong way?  He is going to) Bangkok, two nights in Chiang Mai, and 6 nights in Phuket.  Looking forward to experiencing the culture, sights, beaches, etc., but mostly, have high expectations of the food.  Italian, Indian and Thai are the three pillars to me and can't wait to get me some of the real thing.

See you on the other side.

March 16th, 2015

Hiya...

Have a few minutes this morning, so let's see what's in the notebook these days.  Am working hard on my top 10 things Taiwan does better than anywhere else (am at 7 so far).  You will remember I took issue with this CNN list last time and thought I could do better.  I submit stuff like that to the local English language papers the Taipei Times and the China Post..  I wonder if they ever publish them as have never heard back nor do I really dig very deep into the editorial sections.  They are both about a day behind the regular news, but are a decent source of info on the local scandals at times. 

My favorite of which in the last few months has been the cooking oil scandal.  It went down when we were having issues with this website so probably didn't relay it to you.  Basically, everyone uses cooking oil to make food here...more so than in Western cooking.  The largest supplier here, run by some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country was found to be cutting the oil with other substances.  Oil is pretty nasty to begin with, but when you combine it with things like used oil and leather cleaner (!) and then sell it to the entire population for a generation, that is a huge deal.  A lot of shame to be doled out (too bad the Chinese don't do the hari kari thing) and the perpetrators connection to the ruling government was a significant factor in that party being routed at the polls in November.  That and the facts that Taiwanese more and more fear the mainland government and despise their mainland counterparts culturally, make themwant nothing to do with reunification. 

I really need to get to China for a visit.  you'd think we would have gone, but Betty has zero interest as she is all over that place for many weeks (months) each year.  She used to try to convince me that it was worth visiting, but she has given up on that and thinks it is a horrible place.  No one I talk to here (that includes tourists and ex-pats that have served time there) ever says anything nice about it and they actively caution us against going. I feel I need to go to validate the disdain I have for them. 

Not sure how it got in my FB profile, but I get posts from That's China magazine.  If I lived there, I would like it as they give a lot of restaurant and cultural info in English about the major cities in China, but they also call out some of the locals bad behavior.  I received this link to an article about some moms shaking cherry blossom branches to get better pictures of their kids.  People were pissed that they were ruining the beauty of the trees for the next people and confronted the moms, but they said that the petals were just going to fall anyway and wouldn't stop.  They then let their kids shake the branches and they ended up busting them off of the trunk of the tree (which you can see in the photos).  I totally understand that this shit goes on everywhere, but the mainlanders are called out most as they have the most people and now have the cash to get out and export their "cultural" norms to other societies.  They do seem the most egregious and there wouldn't be so much hatred of the Chinese desecration of nature if there wasn't some truth behind it.  As my mother likes to say, I like to make my "little comments", but always try to make them from a position of knowledge, which is why I need to visit China so I can see if it is true that at their zoos, they not only have descriptions of the animals by the cages, but recipes too.

Is anyone else as disgusted by the current state of the Republican party as I am.  I am still registered as a Republican and do my best to route the discussion towards a party that holds Eisenhower as the model leader, but these guys are not only not even close, but seem to have been collectively sniffing bat guano.  I don't want to get into the long list of topics where they disgust, but these 47 Senators (Senators for chrissakes!) that wrote a letter to Iran gave me a bad case of weltschmerz.  I get it, you hate Obama.  However, he happens to be our President, who is in the middle of negotiations with one of our biggest foes, working alongside and in conjunction with not only the biggest powers on the planet, but some that are also our biggest foes, and you send that?  Party leaders and prospective presidential candidates (am looking at you McConnell, Graham, McCain, Ernst, Cruz, Rubio) all signed the letter that was crafted by a freshman Senator?  From Arkansas no less?   And that they all think that warmonger Netanyahu is some savior or savant, when his record of predicting the future has not only been shown to be the opposite of correct, but has positioned Israel in an us against the world fight, proves that they are all bought off by the MIC (Military Industrial Complex) and are simply itching to use our weapons so they can buy some more.  Ugh...can you worry about the people for just a few minutes.  Talk about fixing a road rather than giving Canada a pipeline or voting against health care. 

Sorry. 

I need to clean up one more thing from November-December.  We took a long weekend trip to Malaysia for Thanksgiving and didn't get to document it.  You can skip to the bottom of the post at this point to see if there are any more clever jokes (like the recipe at the zoo).

We went to MY (Malaysia) with the goal to spend a relaxing weekend at a beach resort.  The resort was fine (and by fine, I always mean that it sucked, but in a way that if I said it sucked, you would think I was a privileged asshole...which I am of course).  It had over water bungalows, but the ocean water was brown as it was at the mouth of a river, so was not pleasant to go in.  The pool was too small and the food on site was not great.  They had a really nice hammock, so I got in a lot of reading, and we watched the T-day Seahawk 19-3 win over the Niners on the balcony,

but other than that,  a poor choice overall.  We did plan a day sightseeing in Kuala Lumpur on the way to the coast, so will share some of those impressions.

We hired a guide for the day, and while he started out slow, we came to like him.  He gave us some of the MY basics that are important to know when understanding the country.

Population is 30 million.  55% Malay/29% Chinese/10% Indian.  There are 26 total ethnic groups but they all coexist in peace, which sounds right as you rarely ever hear anything bad coming out of Malaysia (other than an inability to keep their airplanes in the air).  They are 62% Muslim/20% Buddhist/9% Christian/6% Hindu/2% Other Chinese religions.  I think the Buddhists have the most interesting looking things.

The government is a constitutional monarchy...the parliament is fully elected.  There are 14 states, and 9 of them are governed by Sultans.  The King serves a 5 year term and rotates amongst these 9 Sultans...the current King is 94 years old and this is his second term as such. 

The Chinese came to Malaysia 150 years ago to mine tin.  I had no idea, but tin is a key component in pewter and Malaysia has been the largest producer of pewter for generations.  I saw the Royal Selangor Pewter Museum on the itinerary and thought it was going to be a tourist trap, but was arguably the best thing we saw.  Learning about the chemistry of what it takes to make pewter was interesting to some.

 

We got to see the factory processing close-up, with even a little hands-on training.

 And of course, the largest pewter tankard in the world.



Great tour.  We also learned about the rubber industry.  They produce a lot there, but rubber was not native to the area.  The whole industry arose from two seeds that were smuggled out of Brazil in the 1700's.  Brazil kept tight tabs on their product so as to not allow their monopoly to be lost, but the Brits managed to start up an industry there when they ruled the place, and brought in workers from India (hence your 10% of the population) to work the fields.  Our guide gave us a side of the road demo as to how you extract rubber from a tree.

 I am always fascinated by the lonely person taking multiple selfies.

Popped into a very nice temple (Thean Ho), that was built for the Chinese community by Taiwanese.  It was very nice, but I have a hard time differentiating between the temples.  Maybe he stopped here cause we came from Taiwan?  Whatever...the turtle pond alone was worth the stop.

 And prompted a discussion of Yertle and turtle stacking in general.

And I am dying to know what kind of nutty pictures were taken to have caused them to add # 4 to the list of do's and don'ts.

Had a stop at the War Memorial...it commemorates not only the struggle of the Malaysians and British against Japan, but also the Malaysian Civil War between the Communists and Nationalists from 1948 to 1960.  And as with every place you visit, there has to be something that is the _____est.  This is the world's tallest bronze freestanding sculpture grouping.

I remember being kinda pissed at Taipei when we were driving around as there were a ton of interesting buildings with unusual architecture.  I get bored with the Neo-classical bomb shelter look of the majority of buildings here, but found the contemporary take on traditional middle eastern styles around Kuala Lumpur fun to look at.

 The last couple are from the King's Palace.  Love the yellow.  And from all parts of the city, you get glimpses of the Petronas Towers.

They were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004, but remain the tallest twin towers in the world.  I crumb on the Taiwanese "architecture" quite a bit, but will say that Taipei 101 is much nicer aesthetically than these (and is my favorite from that perspective of all the buildings in this class).  The Petronas Towers are very unusual...but the stainless steel look made them feel a bit cold and sterile.

 The views, especially with the thunderstorms rolling through, were sublime.

We didn't get to sample much local food, but were previously impressed by Malaysian cuisine when visiting Singapore, and you could see the other cuisines (Indian/Chinese/Western) in abundance when touring, so I am giving MY my thumbs-up gastronomically.  Its proximity to the equator keeps it a bit too hot year round for my taste, but I could see how one would find living here a pleasure.

I promised another joke...How do you get a clown to stop smiling? 

Shoot him in the face.

March 10th, 2015

Watching our morning dose of CNN, and the story was about Iraq.  They were talking about ISIS' use of IED's and called them booby traps.  Carolyn gave her best Bevis laugh and said "he said booby".  Total respect.  About 5 seconds later, they throw it over to a military analyst named Dicky Thompson.  A look of acknowledgement was all that was needed. 

Couple of show recommendations for you...first, check out "Nixon's The One".  It is a Harry Sheerer thing and is six episodes that can be found on YouTube.   Sheerer portrays Nixon from the early 70's Oval Office and uses the tapes as dialogue to recreate scenes from those days.  True story, bizarre and darkly funny.  Also have liked the first few episodes of "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", which is a 13 episode Tina Fey written comedy on Netflix.  The premise is absolutely insane and had me hooked from the start.  The the cast sells it masterfully.   I also saw the movie Kingsmen recently and enjoyed it at every level.  Mindless fun with a familiar premise that was interestingly executed. 

We had a long discussion about eyebrows and why they are still on our face.  Best that scientists can explain, they have remained while most of the rest of our facial hair has evolved away to help keep rain and sweat out of our eyes.  Makes sense. 

I can't remember who sent me this, but from CNN, here are 10 things Taiwan supposedly does better than anyone else.  I will concede that three of them are true. 

# 5 - Animated News.  Here is the news announcing the birth of Kate Middleton's first child.  They definitely get it right...YouTube Taiwan Animated News and you can get lost of hours

# 8 - National Health Coverage.  Have gone on about how well it works and proves to me that the ACA doomsayers should shut up or put up (rooting for a Burwell obviously)

# 10 - Little dumplings.  Do the words Din Tai Fung mean anything to you?  Their xiaolongbao are truly magical, but have to say that no one else in town comes close to their quality.  In fact, have been making the argument recently that Taiwanese food is some of the worst on the planet and have been daring people to prove me wrong.  I will make the statement, and the immediate reaction by everyone is that "You're crazy...it's great", however, when pressed to prove it, they got nothing.  They all (and I seriously mean all) say Din Tai Fung.  Granted, unbelievably fantastic...but that is one place, and I can get them both in Seattle and Los Angeles.  After that, it gets kinda quiet.  There is a truck near their place that serves some good pancakes, or a place downtown (that has no address, or signage and is impossible to find, that serves a mean beef noodle soup.  Invariably, these places are staffed by wife beater wearing, hairy mole sporting dudes cooking the food, and the seating area (if it even has one) is lit with naked fluorescent bulb lighting over particle board pressed tables that have years of oiliness embedded on them.  Once they realize the flimsiness of that argument, they will speak of the myriad of wonderful Japanese places around town, to which I reply, "those are Japanese!"  So yeah, Xiaolongbao at Din Tai Fung, then...?  I am daring you to prove me wrong Hungry Girl.

So that is 3 out of 10...what about the other 7?  Number one on this list, and truly, every other list about Taiwan/Taipei that can be found, are the Night Markets.  Depends on your definition...have been fortunate to see the Christmas Markets in several European places last few years, and you could pretty much die happy in those.  Hand made crafts, sweets that aren't filled exclusively with red beans, and microbrews and booze.  Assuming we are throwing them out as they are not year round, I suppose that the ones here compare favorably to those around Asia.  You can get a wider variety of cell phone skins, and questionably authentic athletic footwear here.  They have a ton of that deep fried chicken/squid that people seem to think is great (not).  You can also get what is arguably the best dish in the country...the Oyster omelet.  I will argue with you for a while, cause the ones I've had (which is several) tasted bland and rubbery to me, but in the absence of anything else. I will grant that this blah and chewy is the best dish in the country. 

Am going to lump 2 (Themed Restaurants), 6 (Mock Meat) and 9 (Hello Kitty Obsession) into the "Fine, but how pathetic that they are 3 of the top 10 things" category.

Number 3 is Free WiFi...if what they say is true, that foreign tourists can sign up for it upon arrival and use it for free while they stay here, that is pretty awesome.

Finally, numbers 4 (Chinese Artifacts) and 7 (Little League Baseball), seem a bit rigged.  Do the Taiwanese have the best Chinese artifacts?  Most Chinese seem to feel they do...that is because the Nationalists (depending on who is telling the story) rescued/stole them from the mainland in 1949.  With the history of China during the Cultural Revolution and the destruction from things intellectual, and currently watching the scum ISIS animals destroying ancient history in Iraq these days, will lean to the "rescue" argument.  They present them nicely at the National Palace Museum and it is a popular attraction for mainlanders to visit (I get stuck in traffic every day as empty tour buses by the dozens waiting for their guests line the streets on my afternoon route).  But to tout that they "do them better" than anyone else?  Not really a fair fight, but cannot dispute that. 

As for Little League baseball...I finally got to the bottom of that recently.  A fellow I know has a 10 year old boy that is in the local school system.  He told me that when his kid was 8, he showed an aptitude towards baseball and was offered to go to an elementary school that focused on the game.  While the formal education part is the same as other schools, the kids only play baseball for physical education.  A couple hours a day, 5 days a week (and then weekend games).  If you aren't in one of these schools, you really don't play baseball in any competitive sense.  There is no comparable open Little League tryouts.  So you then have these school teams where all the kids are groomed to be baseball players.  I suppose it is not much different than club teams in the states, but the kids in the LLWS come from open recreational teams (which might be littered with the club kids), but isn't structured, government sponsored culling of the best talent at the youngest levels.  And after the turn 13?  Pretty much all over for the vast majority of the kids.  So do they "do Little League" best?

I am working on my top 10 things that TW does best and hope to have that for you soon...

My Facebook complaint of the week is to the people that put their pet cause in nearly every posting.  A FB acquaintance I have has a son that was diagnosed with Celiac disease a handful of years ago, and it has been a never ending stream of gluten free recipes and how brave the kid is in his never ending battle with the condition.  I guess this is also related to my pet peeve of the parents that post constantly about their kids exploits, which always seem like they are looking for some sort of validation because of them, but the reason that this one bugged me this week was the following inquiry I saw yesterday...

"Is anyone selling Girl Scout cookies in Seattle or know someone who is? I would like to buy some gluten free cookies. Thanks!"  Why did you have to add the gluten free thing?  Wasn't that you were looking for the Do-Si-Dos and Thin Mints enough?  Looking for that constant...what is it...sympathy has to be some kind of disorder.  Not the mass murderer type of malady of course, but one that I think could easily be treated.  I think that these are allowed to fester in women as their kind will give them what they are looking for (you are so brave/thank God the Scouts offer these/etc), while a dude that is a friend will call him out on it every time (Dude...that shirt makes you look like Bruce Jenner).  Don't get me wrong, I love you women, but you know exactly what I'm talking about.  You say that you are being a supportive friend, but know deep down that it isn't really helping that person (and is likely harming them).  I know you can't be mean (like me), but let's just stop with the replies to start and go from there.

And I did receive a couple of replies to my inquiry last time about whether I was the narcissistic guy.  Both (thankfully) said that I wasn't, but that I was "kind of a dick"/"bit of an asshole".  Kind of/a bit?  I will cop to being a total dick and a complete asshole. 

March 4th, 2015

Have got to finish off this Europe X-mas travelogue. Previous installments had us in Vienna, Salzburg and (the greatest city on Earth) Budapest.  Our final few days were to be spent in Prague.  Had determined that the best way to get from Budapest to Prague was by train, and so as to not lose an entire day of time on board, that there was a sleeper train that left at 8ish in the evening, and arrived at 6AM.  We were all pretty excited about the prospect as none of us had ever been on that type of ride before...also, everyone knows that a night on the sleeper train always ends up in murder.

While not luxurious, accommodations were clean.  Our cabin even had a bathroom with a shower (the other two in our group didn't and they had to use the communal toilet...ha ha).  Drank a couple of beers from the club car, did a little reading and don't remember much else from the ride.  Sorta waking up here and there when the train slowed down, but other than that, very smooth and uneventful.  And everyone made it off alive.  If you ever get the chance, was a fantastic way to travel a long distance without losing valuable sightseeing time, and was about a third of the cost of staying that night in a hotel, so win win win...

As we got in early, our hotel wasn't ready to let us in, so we arranged to take a tour of the central area.  Earlier in our trip, we were hanging with an Israeli medical student that had just been to Prague, and she said we should go on a tour with Sandeman.  These tours are scheduled, but free.  They tend to be larger groups and you pay the guide what you feel is fair at the end of it.  We weren't expecting much, but our guide gave an excellent tour, we saw a ton and learned a lot.  It is recommended to give 4-5 euros per person, but we gave a lot more than that and it was still a screaming deal.

Central Prague is compact and centers around Old Town Square.  We went through it a lot...to go up in the Old Town Hall Tower

 For the best view of the city.

  Or to watch the Astronomical Clock go off at the hour

Or to have a monstrously delicious/deliciously monstrous kielbasa.

I know I've seen that Astronomical Clock in movies before, but it was one of the coolest pieces of machinery I've ever seen.  For one, it's over 600 years old.  It has so many interesting features, like the 12 apostles that rotate in the windows when it chimes, the  four figures representing vanity, greed, death and pleasure (the skeleton representing death rings a little bell...how cute).  There is a clock for the time, bit also one that shows the position of the moon in the zodiac, a ring that contains the 400 names in Bohemian society, etc...awesome...check out just how so here.

Should mention that also in the square is an enormous statue of Jan Hus.  Jan was the first church reformer...was before Martin Luther and Calvin...and met his untimely death at the hands of the Catholics.  The Czechs have been lukewarm Christians ever since and the term Bohemian, while meaning people from the land of Bohemia, has an alternate meaning in the west that dates back to this era. 

Our Sandeman guide also took us to the Old Jewish Quarter.  The synagogues here were some of the oldest and most famous in Europe.  One is the legendary home of the Golem.  The tour guide said that the Jewish section and synagogues in Prague were in pristine condition despite the fact that the Nazi's occupied Prague by 1938 and had pretty much cleaned the city of Jews early in the war.  The reason for that was that Hitler loved Prague and planned to retire there.  He wanted to have the Jewish section of the city as a museum to show how the Jews lived before he rid the planet of them.  Chilling.  We also walked past the Jewish cemetery...for hundreds of years, the Jews were confined to this small portion of the city and were denied the ability to bury their dead outside of their ghetto walls, so they had to stack the dead.  The cemetery is a small block, but it raises over 20 feet high and is estimated to contain over 150,000 bodies.  We had planned to go back to check it out, but did so late on a Friday afternoon.  The fake Jew in me forgot that all things Jewish shut down at sundown on Friday.  You can sorta get the gist of how tall it is from this...

Our guide was probably in his early forties, and he was telling us about growing up in the time of the communists...while he was still young, his memory of that time was his first hamburger when he was about 10 years old...how amazing it was and that he can still remember everything about it.  He also told us of one of his relatives that developed the modern soft contact lenses in Communist Czechoslovakia, but that due to the system, he made no money from it and died poor.  (I looked it up...true story).  Another interesting story came from the Velvet Revolution...when the Czechoslovakians tossed out the Soviets...the people stood in peace in the main square and jangled their keys symbolizing that it was time for the Russians to go home.  The breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia came two years later and was called the Velvet Divorce. 

That first day in Prague also happened to be December 31st and had booked a Medieval Dinner in an old building that night.  It was in the basement of an 700 year mansion, but as the Czechs still allow smoking in restaurants, the basement became unbearable and we retreated upstairs.  We still got the full show (belly dancers, lute players, fire spinners, etc...

 Was a bit of a rip off...expensive and the food was not great (although they gave more to each person than several huge dudes could ever possibly eat), but still a decent night.  We walked outside and caught the people powered firework show in the Old Square, counted down to midnight and popped our champagne.

Day two was New Year's Day.  We set off to walk across the legendary Charles Bridge, and as we are walking through the old town, stumble across the sports nesting doll shop. (Sorry, from Betty's camera and cannot rotate in the diary)



 

They had every team from every sport I could think of...baseball, football, soccer...even rugby and Australian Rules football.  Could have (and probably should have) bought 100 different ones and given them as presents, but was selfish (and we were in the middle of the playoffs) so only bought the Seahawks.

Without opening it up, the store guy knew the names, in order, of all the Hawks inside, including SB 48 MVP Malcolm Smith (who I can never remember).  We were mightily impressed. 

The Charles Bridge is the iconic one in Prague, 700+ years old, gorgeous and full of history.  Sends you back in time as you approach it.

 Is lined with statues of Saints, and on several of them, it is said if you touch certain spots, then you will be alternatively blessed in divine ways.

 Never did figure out why the pooch was rubbed raw, but I never miss any possible blessing opportunity...I might not believe in God, but I definitely have the right to pray.

 And fabulous views of the city from it (St Vitus Cathedral in the background)

Epic any time of day.

At the far side of the bridge is the Lennon Wall.  Tucked away in an alley near the bridge, during the late stages (1988) of the Communist regime, students would write graffiti on it in protest of the government.  It started with a portrait of John Lennon to signify the protests were rooted in "peace and love" and was also directed as a double entendre for Lenin/Lennon.  The original graffiti has long been covered up, but it is constantly being updated...

They do indeed.  Having a couple hours to kill, we took the funicular up Petrin Hill to see what we could see.  Would have been much better in the summer when the gardens were in bloom, and I only mention this diversion as they had a Hall of Mirrors there that provided plenty of entertainment.

Prague has a tradition on New Year's Day that I think all cities should do.  On NYE, it is kind of a free for all with drunken revelers shooting off fireworks and boozing in the streets, but the city does their official fireworks show at 6PM on New Year's Day so families can all come out and watch them.  Civilized, no?  We grabbed a bite and then joined the throngs by the river to watch the show.  The street was full where we were, but we only had a peek-a-boo view of the show unfortunately.  Was a bit disappointed by that, but it was OK as we had pre-purchased tickets for a 7:30 show at The Estates Theatre

This was my favorite thing we did in town.  Had walked past it on our tour the previous morning and went back to see if we could catch a show as it sounded so cool.  It was the location where Mozart debuted several pieces, most notably Don Giovanni, it provided the interior for the concert scenes from the movie Amadeus and is the only concert hall still standing where Mozart performed.  They had an hour or so show of Mozart greatest hits that night, so we initially got tickets for the adults to go, then decided that the kids shouldn't miss this one either. 

Again, not a huge devotee but appreciate Mozart on an intellectual level.  3 piece woodwind, tenor and soprano put on a whimsical performance. 

The dude looked just like Ryan Stiles from Who's Line Is It Anyway.  While the performance was fine (and mercifully short), the real grab was how beautiful the room was.  Intimate (compared to the more cavernous opera houses we had seen) time well spent imagining what it must have been like to be watching Mozart live.

Last full day was dedicated to the Castle.  Must say that Prague continued the European trend of efficient and excellent public transportation.  We took trams, subways and buses all over town and they were simply excellent.  Took the bus up the hill to the Castle complex...it dominates the city and touches on all of Czech history.  The day was wet and cold, pretty much our only bad day in two weeks.  Maybe it was the weather, or the fact that I wiped out a couple days before, but I found the complex a bit underwhelming.  Regarding the injury, my knee maladies are well documented and am diligent in minimizing high impact activities and am super careful around ice and snow, but I missed seeing a slick patch of ice when making a turn and down went Frazier.  The swelling had masked the fact that I tore some more meniscus, but by day two after, it was throbbing bad. 

The highlight, and really the only truly memorable thing on the castle area, was St. Vitus Cathedral.  Over 700 years old, fantastic example of Gothic design.  The rain that day made for some fun gargoyle vomiting action.

The most extensive use of flying buttresses I've ever seen.  Remember studying this period in history in 4th or 5th grade and flying buttresses making an impression on me then, obviously cause of the word butt, and they still make giggle Beavis style.

Of course, the inside is equal parts mesmerizing and intimidating...great way to keep the uneducated in line.

 

The castle had a bunch of other buildings that were interesting, but not exceptionally so.  We did see the Window of Defenestration.

A defenestration is when you get thrown out of a window and the act is unique to Prague as far as I can tell.  Religiously motivated, the two most famous defenestrations ultimately caused wars to be fought in their aftermath 250 years apart. 

Oh yeah, the castle complex also had this statue.

Never did figure out what it was, or why the penis was rubbed raw, and subsequent but brief searches have proven inconclusive, but Paul and I both felt compelled to touch it.

And we did stop for this amazing snack on the way off the hill.

The public art in Prague was good.  Franz Kafka was a German speaking Jew that lived in Prague...was good to get a chance to understand him more.  The Prague-ians/ites/sters(?) seemed proud to have him as a city son.

And I became fascinated by modern sculptor David Cerny.  Betty has a better shot of this that I do not have, but it is a reflective pregnant woman, and you can stand up in her uterus

Go check out some of his work at this link...you will not be disappointed. 

I do have to mention the finest urinal I have ever been lucky enough to use...

Pretty simple trough design, and that it was clear glass was aesthetically pleasing, but the crowning touch was the liberal use of lemons and limes in the target zone.  Have always been a fan of the crushed ice and seeing how many I could melt in one movement, but peeing on citrus gave off a fresh scent that was pleasing. Even though he resisted as he didn't have to go, I talked Paul into stopping by and he was not sorry he did.

Speaking of citrus, the food in Prague was fine.  We had a couple of decent sit down meals, but nothing that shook me to the core like those in Budapest.  I did think the street food was quite good...as long as you are down with a Pilsner and kielbasa, in Prague, you are good to go. 

Ann-Marie and Sophie left early that final morning, but we had a few hours to retrace some steps from our first day to see the street art, load up on some fine salamis to take home, watch the astronomical clock again, and ride the elevator to the top of the Old Town Hall for the spectacular 360 degree view of Prague.

Time for a yummy breakfast and off for the long ride home. 

I really want your honest opinion now.  So I know that I am as lucky a dude as there is to be able to take these amazing trips...but do I come off as a braggart in any way?  Here is why I ask...just read this post on Facebook...

"Mother daughter NYC trip 2/2015. Karina said she wanted to go to NYC for her winter break so I took her, and even though I drove her from tennis classes to swimming classes to reading lessons to math lessons all month, she still had such a great time that she didn't want to come back! As a mom I try to make sure she learns a lot but still has time to enjoy her childhood"

That sounds totally messed-up to me.  Hugely narcissistic and the definition of humblebraggery.  Of course, the worst part is the comments from her friends..."you are such a great mom".  I just wretched.  Please call me out if I ever let one of those slip through the wickets?  Please...