Prague 1.1 (the somewhat offbeat stuff)

(read the other Prague post first)

Our conference accommodation was a dormitory at the university where the meeting was being held. Actually, several dorms. Which was a bit odd, because none of them seemed remotely full... Well, after we had all separated to unpack (there were four of us in three rooms in two dorms, *unnamed female coworker* and I shared a room), we reconvened later at the first conference session and a conversation like this ensued:

Friend 1: Oh, man, my room is so awful, I can't believe they'd put us in something so bad.
Friend 2: (who is in same dorm as friend 1, but different room) Mine is not so great either.
Me: wow, that's too bad, our room is awesome. (I am soooo tactful)
Friend 3: (sharing room with me) Is it really so bad? what is so bad about it?
Friend 1: I have to share a disgusting bathroom with someone, and the whole place looks like a prison, and its generally icky.
Friend 2: Yes sharing the bathroom with a stranger is questionable for people such as conference attendees, particularly as the doors between don't lock.
Me: Its a dorm, of course it looks like a prison. That's not good, though, about the doors not locking - horrid.
Friend 3: We'll have to come over and see yours to compare.

Well, later we went and saw Friend 1's room, which we gathered to be the worst. It is hard to know, since Friend 2 lived in a tent in Africa for two years, her standards are very flexible. Anyway, Friend 1's room was virtually identical to the one I shared with Friend 3, except for the creepily shared bathroom, which was, I concede, somewhat gross, but not terrible. Anyway, this just goes to show how one man's trash is another man's food. I mean treasure. Or perhaps, one man's cardboard box is another man's 4 bedroom fully serviced condo. WELL. Czech out this massive and terrifying fern that had taken over an entire floor of the dorm building:

The camera angle is not the best, but the tallest frond there is over my head. In fact, it appears to be reaching for my head. It was most frightening at night, as there were NO HALL LIGHTS WHATSOEVER. Heh heh, we actually used my cell phone as a flashlight.

Okay that's it with the university photos, back to Prague itself. Here we have an incredibly long and thin glass window. It looks like I'm just doing a trick with the camera angle and making it long and skinny, but really, it is crazy:

Walking along the riverside south of the Charles Bridge and castle, we saw some unusual 'houses.' This one is not a log cabin but a plank cabin, with a plexiglass roof and a decrepit old chair inside:

And this one was a strange eye- or egg-shaped wooden structure, covered with canvas:

I am the apple of Prague's eye, ha ha ha! Or perhaps the irritating speck of dust stuck in there...

Next up we have some cute graffiti, these guys are from the movie "Princess Mononoke" which came out in 2001 I believe. Well, the little fellers are alive and well on the back roads of the not-so-touristy area near the children's hospital:

We spent a lot of time walking along the river, here's a funky structure that was on an island. We never found out what it was for - its not a touristy area, so there was no sign or anything, and it appeared to be bricked up, at least the door on the ground floor did. Note guy fishing.

Maybe he was getting ready for the Fish Festival:

Maybe he has a cute van like this at home (its a Subaru):

Perhaps he is even an off-duty policeman. I would not be surprised, given how many cops I saw, and the excellent police recruitment posters which resemble movie posters and are complete with cops looking serious, brandishing handguns, and doing wheelies on motorcycles:

Who can look at that and NOT want to join the police?

Finally, this is a common notice that is posted at bus stops. The pink one is particularly funny. Apparently, one should not mash others' breasts with one's backpack, nor ream navels with one's walking stick. (if the photo is not hi-res enough let me know and I'll put up the full size one for download).

Fun fact: the word 'robot' derives from the Czech word 'robota' which means 'labour.' It was first used in a Czech play (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek just after WW2. His robots were basically humans, but were constructed on an assembly line like any mechanical robot. Its kinda like the golems of Jewish folklore (wiki 'golem' - its really interesting and particularly relevant to Prague) Anyway, if you are interested you can read the play translated into English here: http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/capek/karel/rur/

Prague 1.0 (the touristy entry)

My search for crayfish betterment has taken me on yet another epic European adventure. This time I journeyed to Prague in the Czech Republic, considered to be one of the most beautiful European cities, to attend a 3.5 day conference on biological invasions. "Wait, what" you say? Things like phragmittes, rusty crayfish, that huge vine growing along the highways in the Appalacian mountains...you know, things living in places they shouldn't, destroying the indigenous ecosystem. ANYWAY. Prague. We spent an evening and then the next whole day wandering the city.

Here is lovely, ancient Prague castle at sunset:

Here we had climbed a tower on the Charles Bridge, and were afforded an amazing view over the city on both sides of the river. We would have walked up the hill to the special observation tower, but one of my companions was limping, the other had a sore neck, and I had a headache. So we settled for this:

And here's the view looking to the right, you can see the river:

There were lots of large bats flying around. I made a video to show my friend who is studying bats. Now here we have a view showing the bridge and castle, taken from the top of the tower on the east side of the bridge:

So, the next day we had lots of time for cruising around the city. There were swarms of tourists. The main souvenirs appeared to be blown glass, crystal, jewelry, and for the kids wooden marionettes. Police cars seemed to be everywhere, but I never saw anything remotely criminal, and the only one I saw with sirens was going with two amubulances on the outerbelt around the city. Overall the city was very well-kept with clean streets, excellent public transit (including buses, subway, and trams!), and amazingly beautiful buildings.

There were several horse carriages in the main square of the old town district, all of them looking shiny and happy:

(the ear hats are to keep insects from entering their ears, f.y.i.)

Here is a view of the famous astronomical clock, it shows....lots of things...heh heh, but I forget what they are. Position of the moon, time, date, stuff like that. Below it is a calender disc. On the hour, a skeleton pulls a rope to ring the bell, and some doors open revealing different apostles. At twelve o'clock ALL the apostles are revealed. We saw 4pm, though. Also note the lovely police and swarms of tourists. Yes.

The large mainly-white building with the two towers was a church, whose name eludes me, but it was very amazing on the inside. Phenomenal decorations considering the small number of pews. Well. Someone had money... As for the statue, we never did figure out what it was. Rather ambiguous-looking:

Yet another view of the castle. With a different bridge, this one is more modern. And by more modern I mean built after 1600, ha ha:

That's all folks, I'll make another post with the fun stuff.

My patio plants

Someone stole them. What the...why would...WHO steals PLANTS?!?! They took my two large plants, which were small shrubs, but left the small ivy plants, which I re-potted today. Ugh! I am so disgusted with humanity. None of the neighbors saw anything.

I should really mention Diseased Kitty, this cat that has been hanging around the road. I'm not sure if it belongs to anyone. It has seemed at times to have a respiratory infection, though it does seem somewhat better lately...since I've been feeding it...and once it rained all day and I let her inside...oh no, I'm gonna be a crazy cat lady... Actually, I'm going to take a photo and go to all my neighbors and ask if it is their cat, or if they know whose it is. If no one claims it I'll either call the RSPCA and have them come get it, or I may take it to the vet first to see if it has a chronic infective disease, in which case it will probably end up put to sleep. I'm concerned as there are several healthy looking cats around, and if DK does have something chronically infectious, its only a matter of time before they contract it.

My friend says I should not call it Diseased Kitty, so her tentative name is Golddust, given the golden brown speckles in her otherwise black coat. She's very, very friendly. Pie is very interested in her, and wants to smell her, but DK will not allow such close contact. She doesn't run from the Pie, but she hisses when the Pie gets too close.

The Pie is well, and has been enjoying the glut of fieldwork lately, which means lots of fun and frolic for her.

Stuffed Crayfish

I made a stuffed crayfish! It is two feet long. It is full of reused stuffing from the toys I buy at the charity shops for the Pie to master. It has eyes and legs made of felt, the rest is plush fabric. Here are some photos:

from above:

from behind:

sitting on the couch:

As you can see in the last photo, he even has a cute little smile. Right now he is sitting at a spare desk at the office, with one claw holding the computer mouse. Maybe he'll surf the web when we all go home tonight...