Plague (Plahg) Brog, Day 1

When your husband has a slip of the tongue and says "What should we write about first in our Plague brogs?" as you stand in the middle of a beautiful, old town square...you remember it.

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It took eight hours to get to Prague from our little city station way up here on the coast.  Which, if you think about it, isn't so bad.  That's like a trip to Seattle from Coos Bay.  The trains, however, are a little hit and miss. Our first train was fast and had down-filled seats and a soothing voice that said, "Meinen damen und herren..." every time we approached a major stop.  Our second train made everything below our eyeballs fall asleep.

So it goes.

The major upside was that the trip between Dresden and Prague was gorgeous, as we stayed in a river canyon for most of the way, surrounded by beautiful fall colors on the trees and little villages clustered along the cliffs.  Everyone should go somewhere beautiful in October.  Everyone should go see fall colored trees.

When we arrived in Prague, we were a little skittish.  That happens when you spend five hours on a train reading guidebooks that say things like, "Pickpockets abound!"  (Besides, who even uses the word "abound" anymore?)   So, we shuffled off the train with our bag wrapped around our arms, giving shifty looks at everyone until it took us about fifteen seconds to realize that Prague was just a regular city and we didn't have to walk around with our backpack zippers twisty-tied.  Wallets went into inside coat pockets or deep layered, zipper pockets in our bag, and that was about all we had to do.  We didn't see any pickpockets abounding, at least.  But, maybe that's just a summer thing.

We pulled 3000 koruna from the atm (nothing makes you feel richer than countries with a 25 to 1 exchange rate).  And set off to find our hotel.

Mala Strana, the best place to stay in Prague.  AND  I want you to know that I totally took this picture.

We got lost.

And then we found our hotel.

Then we went on an adventure to find something diverting and hopefully involving classical music.

We got lost.

And then we found out that, in Prague, there are about 1599345 different classical concerts happening every night.  We chose an oboe-featuring quartet that was playing Smetana and Dvorak.  It was in the basement of a palace and was heated--or so it prominently told me on the flyer.  'Bout had an oboe-beauty-induced heart attack there, but I recovered and we went to go find something to eat.

We got lost.

Wound up at the Grand Cafe Orient around 9pm which was magical.  It's an old flapper-era cafe with 1920's music playing in the background and at the top of an almost surrealist, wavy, oblong spiral staircase.  What better place to have pancakes and duck?  No better place I tell you.

Came to find out later that it's in a building called the "House of the Black Madonna" which is a famous example of cubist/art deco architecture.  Huh.  The things you accidentally find when you get lost in Prague.  Go for the style, not necessarily for the food, though the hot chocolate was very good.  There are other cafes that are so, so very much better if you want a culinary experience, and I'll tell you about them later.

We wandered back over the Charles Bridge around 10pm toward Mala Strana, slowly taking in the beautiful old square, old town, riverfront, and the castle on the hill.

Getting some good luck from St. Jan of Nepomuk
on Charles Bridge at night, castle in the
background.

Old Town Square at Night

Then we got lost.