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.