Daily Archives: July 24, 2024

Jul24

The Prague post office and art gallery

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Friday, 28-June-2024


As many may know, one of my fun projects that I’ve set for myself on this trip has been writing, and sending, postcards to friends and family back in the United States. Approximately 30 cards have gone out from each country I’ve visited, and with Czechia being the 10th country… that marked around 300 postcards sent to date.

It’s not a small amount of time or money, but it’s also been a huge help with keeping me grounded and connected… which is endlessly important in my currently (physically) adrift state.

So I find postcards as I explore, fill them out as I have evenings free, and then find a post office sometime before I leave the city to set them winging their way across the globe and to mailboxes across the United States. And Ireland, since I mail things to myself too. I mean, hey – if other people get gifts and postcards, I’m important enough to get them too, right?

Right.


So yeah I went to the post office in Prague.

Why haven’t I written about going to post offices before? Well… they’re usually not particularly interesting. Some language barriers, some envelope purchases, writing in addresses that’re required, and using the pre-printed stickers when they’re not… it’s pretty simple and straight forward usually.

In Prague, it wasn’t that much different. There were longer lines and more chaos, but it was just another system to understand and a problem to be solved – in this case, solved via a guy who probably worked there, who looked creepily like Ted Cruz, and who only took cash in exchange for finding me the packaging materials that I needed. The price was the same as posted, so… I wasn’t gonna worry about that weirdness.

What I did focus on, aside from the 45min wait to get to the main postal counter, was the post office itself. Instead of being a small office or new business-looking lobby, this was a beautiful art museum. Literally, actually! There was a gallery and everything! Like, and art gallery. The main lobby was also technically a gallery, now that I think about it… but okay we’re getting pedantic here.

I mailed my parcels, wandered, appreciated the lady with her cat on a leash (a cat who was completely unamused by the goings-on of the nearby humans), and wandered around the art gallery on the second floor. It wasn’t huge, but it was absolutely an appreciated cooldown after waiting in line for ages.

Jul24

A walk in the driving rain

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Thursday, 27-June-2024


I was sitting in a cafe, relaxing and trying to decide what my exact plans for the day would be, when the sky opened up above me.

Thankfully I was already indoors, because if I hadn’t been… well, I saw how quickly the people outside got completely soaked through. Granted, I didn’t have anything on me that couldn’t get soaked and be okay, but… that doesn’t mean that it’s pleasant to have to wring out a satchel full of water.

I relaxed and appreciated the rain, as I appreciated my coffee and my pastry. Chocolate Mousse, if I remember correctly – clearly the lunch of champions, and in hindsight an excellent choice to combat the downpour.




After about half an hour, the rain let up and I took my chance. I’d paid the bill a bit ago, and had just been sipping my water and reading, so I was able to take advantage of a quick let up in the storm to fast-walk the few hundred meters back to my apartment. I’d debated and considered, and my goal for the afternoon was the North Face Store, about three kilometers from where I was staying… My duffel bag had torn again (my second bag to give up the ghost), and so I’d decided that overkill was the best option and that I’d be buying one of North Face’s expedition duffels for my third attempt.

What better way to get an expedition duffel bag, than to embark upon a (light) expedition to get to it? I laced up my boots, locked on my rain gear, and headed out into the… dang it the rain had stopped.




That’s fine, of course. I simply took off the jacket and kept walking – soon enough Prague obliged my preparedness and started back up with the rain, and so the jacket went back on, and I continued through the intermittent deluges and breaks of sun.

I passed the Dancing House, a beautiful building by Frank Gehry (in collaboration with Vlado Milunić), saw a rather spellbinding juggler (but didn’t get a photo), and appreciated the city in the rain, and in between the rain. It was lovely, quiet, and a perfectly meditative excursion.



As an interesting side note – I took the opportunity of walking in the rain to photograph another art installation by David Černý, called “Embryo”. It’s a less-popular one of his works, supposedly, and I can understand why… while all of his works that I saw were subtly creepy, this one was actively creepy. An embryo growing in a downspout on a theater, with a faint pulsing heartbeat light inside.

Definitely neat, and definitely added to the plethora of art to be found in Prague… but definitely disconcerting at the same time.




Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_House
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/david-cernys-embryo